The Hindu 10.12.2010
Lack of sanitation facilities plagues Elliot’s beach
Staff Reporter
— Photo: M. Karunakaran
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.