The Hindu              02.09.2013

Public toilets get cleaner as civic body takes action

Odour-filled, dirty public toilets maintained by the
Coimbatore Corporation are a thing of the past. The public convenience
facilities are not just clean, they also have adequate water supply,
doors in good condition and proper lighting.

The
changeover has come about after the civic body initiated steps to
improve the monitoring mechanism. Corporation Commissioner G. Latha said
that her surprise visits to public convenience facilities revealed that
there was no proper monitoring mechanism, which helped the contractors
get away easily without fulfilling their obligations.

Now
the Corporation’s sanitary supervisors visit almost 95 per cent of the
268 toilets to ensure that they are clean, have enough water, have the
lights in working condition, etc. And the supervisors do it twice a day —
morning and evening.

The change is visible on the
ground. Kanniamma, who stays in Ondipudur, said that the contractor
supplied acid, bleaching powder, etc in time and ensured that they
cleaned the toilet complex. The contractor also ensured their complaints
regarding doors, motors that pump water, etc were addressed at the
earliest. Hygiene at the toilet had visibly improved in that people no
longer hesitated using them, said Lakshmi Lakshmanan, a Singanallur
resident.

Commissioner Ms. Latha said that sanitary
supervisors would visit every day the public toilets they were assigned
to supervise and send reports over a specially designed mobile
application. The Corporation would receive the same and senior officials
would monitor the developments on a day-to-day basis. At places where
the supervisors reported problems, the Commissioner and the contractor
concerned would get the report for follow-up action. After carrying out
the corrections, the contractors concerned would report to the
Corporation, which would verify the claims based on the supervisor’s
report. The Corporation would identify contractors against whom the
Corporation received negative reports and hold over their payment. Ms.
Latha said that the Corporation had so far not delayed payments to
contractors as the new system had been in place for only a month now.