South Delhi Municipal Body Comes Clean, To Construct 200 Toilets This Fiscal

In early October this year, it was reported that the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) had not spent a single penny of the Rs 46.28-crore grant it had received under the Centre's Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) for the financial year 2015-16. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) , on the other hand, spend only 0.25 per cent of the Rs 31.63 crore allocated to it for the same period. The chiefs of both the municipal bodies told the media it was too early to divulge the details of their spending plans.

Not a month has passed and the SDMC has come up with a plan. The municipal body plans to build about 200 public convenience facilities by the end of 2017 financial year using the funds allocated under the SBM. Of this, 46 new toilet blocks have already been constructed and the work on the remaining units will be finished by the end of the financial year. Newly built public toilets at Shahpur Jat, Dheer Singh Marg and Mahaveer Enclave are already operational.

"The newly opened toilet blocks have been provided water and electricity supply. The solar panels will generate electricity for them. They are situated near the colleges in South Campus and other women colleges. Most of the blocks have been constructed in residential localities, on major roads, commercial complexes and other places where people visit often," a Press Trust of India report quoted an SDMC official as saying. About 20 per cent of these blocks have been “constructed exclusively for women” and are user-friendly for people with special needs.

In a country, where roughly half the population still defecates in the open, the SDMC move could prove to be a good start. Urban India alone accounts for more than 38 billion litres of sewage generated in the country annually. Most of this is discharged into water bodies. However, municipal bodies in Delhi will have to think of other ways to tackle the dirt issue. The national capital is, after all, counted among the most polluted cities in the world.

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