The Hindu 10.12.2010
Lack of sanitation facilities plagues Elliot's beach
Eyesore: Litter spread across the Elliot's beach in Chennai on Thursday.
CHENNAI: S. Nithya (22), a resident of Odai Kuppam, hates to walk to the community toilet at one end of the beach, especially after it gets dark. There are 4,000 families in the area, mainly of fishermen and vendors, most of whom do not have toilets. For K. Balu, a plumber in the same area, the huge pile of garbage outside his hut is something he cannot get used to. “People come to clean once a month but only when it gets unbearable; they don't even leave the dustbins behind,'' he says.
The lack of sanitation facilities and dustbins in and around Elliot's beach has become a cause for concern not only for people who reside in the nearby hamlets, but also for many beach-lovers.
A waste audit conducted by Reclaim Our Beaches (ROB), a youth-led initiative, last month revealed at least 31,000 pieces of visible trash littering the beach, that included 1,161 pieces of glass sticking out of the sand, disposable cups and spoons and water sachets.
A survey among the beach users, by ROB, shows that an overwhelming majority demanded more bins to be placed and wanted the Corporation to build and maintain toilets near the beach.
The beach has just three dustbins, with two of them in the same area, and just one community toilet at one end, forcing people to often litter and urinate on the sands.
“The worst affected are vendors who spend most of the time on the beach,'' said H. Siddharth, an ROB member. S. Shankari, another member, said the ROB had sent a petition to the Chennai Corporation Commissioner seeking more public convenience and dustbins.
When contacted, Commissioner D. Karthikeyan said that the petition has been forwarded to the zonal officers and discussions were under way to identify the most appropriate locations to build toilets near the Elliots beach. Mass clearance programmes on the beach and nearby kuppams would also be organised shortly, he added.
