Owing to the difficulty in maintaining the biotoilets in the city,
the Kochi Corporation is planning to hand over the responsibility of its
functioning to Kudumbasree. According to officials, the paper work in
this regard is nearing completion and soon the Kudumbasree members will
man the toilets. The Kochi Corporation had set up the toilets more than
an year ago. However, lack of takers for running them led to its closure
in different parts of the city.

Kochi Corporation Works Standing
Committee chairperson Soumini Jain said that even though they had called
tenders for the toilets, there were no takers for shouldering the
responsibility. “The revenue generated from the biotoilets is
insufficient to pay the staff employed for the maintenance services,”
she said. Since there is no guarantee of making any profit, especially
since the maintenance charges are high, nobody is interested in taking
it up.

There are allegations that lack of electricity and water lead to the closure of some of them.

The
full responsibility of operating the toilets will be handed over to
Kudumbashree.  The compensatory funds for paying the wages of the
employees will be paid by the Corporation. “The toilets were installed
by the Kochi Corporation as a service. That is why we have  decided to
bear the cost although it is a loss for us,” Soumini said.

The
bio-toilets have been set up at Vyttila, Fort Kochi, Kacheripady and on
the Town Hall  premises. “The toilet has not been opened to the public
so far. We’re not sure whether the Corporation will take any initiative
to open them,” said Vincent, an  autodriver at Kacheripady. A shopkeeper
nearby claims that there is no permanent electricity supply for its
functioning. 

The human waste is treated and converted into odourless gas and water in biotoilets.