Urban News

The Hindu 07.11.2009

60-cr. project to lay roads in slums

Special Correspondent

Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar

Damage control?: A municipal employee sprays insecticide in a drain at Yadava Colony in Old Guntur even as Minister Kanna Lakshmi Narayana (not in the picture), district Collector B. Ramanjaneyulu and others take an early morning walk on Friday. —

GUNTUR: With elections to Guntur Municipal Corporation in just over a year, Minister for Heavy Industries Kanna Lakshmi Narayana, who had adopted the Guntur West Assembly Constituency during current term, launched a massive drive to assess the quality of civic amenities being provided to people in the city on Friday.

Discussions held

Moved by the conditions in the slums and some fringe colonies, the Minister held discussions with the VGTMUDA and GMC officials to finalise a plan to lay roads in all slums by the time the IHSDP Funds were released.

The former Mayor Kanna Nagaraju was also present at the meeting, where it was finally decided to invest Rs.60 crore for the purpose. The GMC would invest Rs.30 crore and UDA will chip in with Rs.30 crore.

The Mayor Rayapati Mohan Saikrishna is away in New Delhi meeting the Union Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy to put pressure on him to get funds under the IHSDP.

Mr. Kanna Lakshmi Narayana, however, said that drains would be readied by the time funds for roads were released with the estimates being prepared now for seeking about Rs.450 crore for a comprehensive slum development programme.

In a surprise move, the Minister announced a check of some of the wards in Guntur East and Guntur West Assembly constituencies that together make the GMC area, along with Guntur East MLA Mastan Vali and went to inspect 10 colonies, sharp at 5 a.m.

Many of the residents were still in deep sleep when a battery of municipal officials, the Minister, MLA, Municipal Commissioner Illambarthi and Guntur Collector B. Ramanjaneyulu, with media persons, set out to assess the sanitation in Sangadigunta 3rd Lane.

Poor sanitation

The inspection showed how bad the situation was in the colony, when a photographer of the DPRO fell into a 4-feet ditch full of drain water right along the road that did not have a single street light. Indiramma Houses were being constructed with drain water flowing on the streets.

Municipal staff were caught napping at many colonies like Yadava Colony in Old Guntur and Sangadigunta, when they began removing solid waste even as the Minister was walking on the streets to inspect some of the burial grounds. The Minister said that this would be a regular affair from now with once every month he along with the Commissioner and Collectors touring at least 10 colonies.

Indian Express 6.11.2009

200 city slums, 10 lakh people, not one toilet

With the city short of more than 64,000 toilet seats, and the demand-supply gap continuing to increase, slum sanitation in Mumbai will remain inadequate for at least five more years.

The average ratio of persons per toilet in the city’s slums is 81:1. In some slums, like those in the A, S and F South wards, the ratio is as staggering as 273 persons per toilet seat.

Now, after a long delay, the civic administration has undertaken phase II of its Slum Sanitation Programme (SSP), which was to begin in 2006. The plan is to build 35,000 toilet seats through 183 blocks but progress has been slow. Construction is under way on 3,500 seats; civic officials said 57 blocks have been completed with 1,128 toilet seats already in use

“Construction of toilet blocks is still held up for lack of space. The BMC has not able to build toilets on land where permission is needed from the MHADA, the district collector, airport and other authorities,” said a senior civic official handling SSP-2.

“Builders undertaking redevelopment schemes in slums have been hindering the civic administration from constructing toilet blocks. The delay in SRA schemes has left dwellers without any toilet facilities.”

Phase 2, with a budget of Rs 450 crore, was to be completed in 2011; officials now admit it will take a minimum of five years to construct all the toilet blocks. “The cost has also gone up since the estimate was made in a 2001 survey. It will take at least Rs 1,000 crore for Mumbai to be free of open defecation,” the officer added

The SSP was launched by the BMC with the help of the World Bank in 1997 but implementation began three years later. Till 2003, around 330 toilet blocks had been constructed, with 6,050 toilet seats. The current total is 78,000.

According to a World Bank survey on sanitation in 2001, around 5 per cent of population, mainly women and children, had to defecate openly. The proportion has gradually increased. According to a 2006 World Bank document, Partnering with Slum Communities for Sustainable Sanitation in a Megalopolis, 20 per cent of all slum dwellers now defecate in the open.

The BMC now plans to construct toilet blocks around the railway line for use of slum dwellers on railway land. These form the chunk of those who defecate in the open.

209 of 1,435 SHORT OF SANITATION FACILITIES
3 slums without toilets in Zone I (Colaba, Dongri, Kalbadevi, Mahalaxmi)
54 slums without toilets in Zone II (Matunga, Parel, Dadar, Chinchpokli, Worli)
47 slums without toilets in Zone III (Bandra, Santacruz, Andheri, Versova, Juhu, Jogeshwari, Goregaon)
68 slums without toilets in Zone IV (Malad, Dindoshi, Goregaon, Dahisar, Borivli, Kandivli, Charkop)
22 slums without toilets in Zone V (Kurla, Chunabhatti, Mankhurd, Govandi, Chembur, Trombay)
15 slums without toilets in Zone VI (Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Mulund, Bhandup)