THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The next time a city toilet is left in bad condition for a long time, Swachh Bharat officials at the Centre will come to know about it, thanks to feedback devices being installed in the toilets. Three simple buttons allow people to convey whether the toilets are in ‘good’, ‘bad’ or ‘satisfactory’ condition. Suppose someone clicks on the ‘red’ button meant to indicate that the toilet is in unsatisfactory condition an alert SMS will go to the mobile phone of the person maintaining the toilet, as well as the junior health inspector.
If the problem remains unresolved for some more time, an alert will go to the health supervisor or anyone that the Corporation would have assigned. If they too fail to address the issue, alerts will be sent to Union government officials. Earlier there were little means to monitor toilets throughout the year. Toilets were visited only around the time when officials had to assess which city infrastructure needed maintenance. During this time, many toilets would remain inaccessible to the public for various reasons. Some would even be locked.
When a group of urban designers called Recycle Bin conducted a survey, they found that there were cases where the toilet in-charge would have fashioned a store room out of the toilet. Most of these facilities did not have separate toilets for women. The new devices have been installed at 80 or so toilets. These include 45 corporation toilets as well as other public toilets like those at petrol pumps. By next week, the device installation will be completed.
