Bio-toilets welcome, but need good planning

Representation pic

The design for bio-toilets that are to be set up at the city's beaches is ready. The National Green Tribunal had, last year, directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to install toilets along the seashore so that beaches are not soiled. The BMC, which recently received a fabricated bio-toilet, announced this project in May this year.

The first such toilet will be set up at Juhu beach soon, said a civic official. These toilets will also have a facility for transgender people. In a report in this paper the official explained that they needed to make a concrete base for the installation. There will be seven seats in each toilet - three for men, two for women, one for transgender individuals and one for the differently abled.

There are plans for eight toilets each at Juhu and Dadar-Mahim seashore and two each at Girgaon, Madh Marve, and Manori-Gorai beaches, and five at Versova. The project will cost Rs 3.20 crore.

Officials need to brainstorm and come up with the best location on the beach to install these. Start working on the concrete base, only after zeroing in on this. Some time ago, toilets were installed at Colaba, near the Radio Club. Despite locals' warning, the toilets were placed on the promenade near the sea. While the thinking was that the tourists who came to Colaba, especially the Gateway, could use these facilities, the location was not the best. The monsoon waves battered these toilets and in fact even rose over them. The rubbish in the sea slammed against these toilets. They were eventually defunct.

While amenities are important and the transgender facility shows that we are thinking about non-binary people, let everything be very well-planned and solid groundwork be done, community inputs taken before throwing open public-use infra.