Most cities in our country don’t have an adequate number of public toilets. Even if there are public toilets, lack of maintenance and hygiene concerns put off most people from using them.
The city of Thiruvananthapuram was grappling with this issue as well but to no greater avail. It was the onset of the Onam season that prodded the authorities to take heed of the necessity of more toilets.
And not just at regular public places but at venues as well, where hoards of people turn up for events and programmes conducted as part of the festivities.
To tackle the problem, the city corporation has come up up with the ingenious idea of mobile toilets. The corporation has put to effect four such structures.
Each has ten cubicles and can be taxied away to any location. Launched under People’s Planning Scheme with a budget of ₹37 Lakh, the best part about these toilets is that they are unisex and will cater the transgender community who are shunned from using public toilets at large, reports TOI.
The initiative was flagged off by Mayor V K Prasanth on Thursday. According to the officials, this was done hurriedly to meet the sanitary requirements of large crowds at public places before the festival comes to an end.
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“Corporation used to operate mobile toilets. The new toilets have been purchased to replace the defunct ones,” said a corporation official to New Indian Express.
Each of the mobile toilets is equipped with a water tank that has a capacity of 1,200 litres as well a storage tank that can collect the same amount of waste. The waste can be drained using a suction pump.
If more such mobile toilets make inroads, it can hopefully help ease the dilemmas faced by people in search of toilets in public places!