Hyderabad: Every department accuses the other for the poor maintenance of the city’s public toilets.
The GHMC says the toilets are not maintained due to poor water supply from the Water Board. The HMDA says it is supplying water to all the public toilets.
Cities like Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi have adopted private agencies to maintain public toilets. Delhi has introduced capsule restrooms with the help of the France-based consultancy JCDecaux. Chennai has introduced 356 fully-automated toilets that does not need much cleaning — if used properly.
Mr Krishna Bhushan, a software engineer from Madhapur, said most of the public toilets in the IT corridor were locked after the first few days. “Chennai has fully-automated toilets. Compared to Chennai, the maintenance of public toilets is poor in Hyderabad,” he said.
Asked about the issue, GHMC Mayor Bonthu Rammohan said the government had thought that the bio-urinals would be an alternative for the old models. “The concept of bio-urinals has almost failed. Toilets being run by private agencies are better. We are planning to introduce the type of toilets installed in Delhi,” he said.
He said that the GHMC was planning to approach JCDecaux to construct more toilets.
When Mr Teegala Krishna Reddy was mayor for the erstwhile MCH, he imposed penalties against those who urinated in public. Then RTC chairman Gone Prakash Rao had advised the MCH to take people who urinate in the open and drop them on the city outskirts as a punishment; they would have to return to the city on their own.
Asked if he was planning similar punitive measures, Mr Rammohan said, “We will hold a review with officials. If the previous methods were successful, we will implement them,” he said.
