Visakhapatnam: Despite the state government promulgating the new Scavengers Act-2013 for maintaining hygiene at dwelling places, the civic authority still has not augmented the efforts to keep the city clean.
In fact, many slums in the city were facing severe unhygienic conditions with open defecation and piled up garbage, posing a threat to public health.
Officials identified 64 such places near slums in the city and around 180 public toilets have been set up there, but owing to lack of maintenance some of them have become defunct.
As per the new Act, the urban local body has to conduct survey on existing unsanitary toilets being used by the people and organisations within two months from the date of commencement of the Act and has to identify places for construction of public toilets.
If they find any violation like use of unsanitary toilets at dwelling places they have to issue notices. The GVMC has to construct community toilets within nine months and ensure maintenance of hygiene, according to the Act.
This apart, railway stations and cantonment boards should also construct adequate number of community facilities within three years from enforcement of the Act.
To address the problems in the city limits, the GVMC has recently started construction of bio-toilets, developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation a year ago as a low-cost alternative to the flush-and-forget toilets, as part of the '25 crore project for establishing public toilets at all 180 spots.
GVMC chief medical officer, M. Satyaran-ayana Raju said they had identified such unhygienic places in the city and started constructing bio-toilets.
“We plan to construct these eco-friendly toilets at all needed places. The process has begun. We are submitting a report to the government on the existing sanitary conditions as per the New Scavengers Act,” he added.
