Mumbai to have sanitation special task force
To ensure that sanitation projects are undertaken by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), its standing committee chairperson Rahul Shewale has hinted at forming a special task force that would keep a tab in the implementation of these projects in the city.
The projects include erecting toilet blocks, reconstruction of dilapidated toilets, setting up of five star hotels in 227 wards along the eastern and western express highways.
“In view of the long pending sanitation projects in the city, I propose for a sanitation special task force for Mumbai, especially, for this purpose that would keep an eye on these projects and ensure that they are completed on time,” Shewale said.
Out of the 35,000 toilet seats to be built by the year 2011, only 1,538 seats have been built yet in the last five years since 2005.
Even the 35,000 toilet seats promised have taken a lifetime to come. When the project was envisaged, the demand must have been that of 35,000 seats but now the demand must have surely increased, Shewale said.
Quoting, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP’s) Human Development Report of last year, that said there was a deficit of 64,000 toilet seats in the city, Shewale said, “Only 14% of the toilets have some water.”