Transparency and public toilets in India
Q: Commercial public toilets and so called 'community toilets' have been tried in several cities in
(researcher,
Answer: Lots of public toilets, the majority in slums and peri-urban areas just don’t work right and are really horrible. As with all things where money flows and contractors are used, there can be problems. One good example of transparency in finance and good operating facilities comes from Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu where the public toilet/baths are run by federated women’s savings groups where the members check each other.
Read more on the Tiruchi model:
Ganapathy, V. “A silent revolution for healthy living in the slums of Tiruchi” in Martin J. Bunch, V. Madha Suresh and T. Vasantha Kumaran, eds., Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Environment and Health,
Andhra team praises Tiruchi model of pay-and-use toilets, The Hindu, 11 Jan 2005, http://www.hindu.com/2005/01/11/stories/2005011106570300.htm
Documents
In addition, you can find more about public toilets through IRC´s library database IRCDOC, using the following links:
http://www.irc.nl/docsearch/results/?subj=104453 (public toilets)
http://www.irc.nl/docsearch/results/?subj=102046 (community blocks)
One of the publications from the first list gives some interesting insights from outside India:
Ayee, J. and Crook, R. (2003). Toilet wars : urban sanitation services and the politics of public-private partnerships in
This paper examines the impact of the new forms of partnership between the public authorities and private/citizen-based organisations on urban environmental sanitation in the two largest cities of
A good overview of experiences with public toilets in
Burra, S. ; Patel, S. and Kerr, T. (2003). Community-designed, built and managed toilet blocks in Indian cities. Environment and urbanization ; vol. 15, no 2 ; p.. 11-32.
This paper describes the ten-year programme of community designed, built and managed toilet blocks undertaken by urban poor federations and women’s cooperatives, with support from the Indian NGO SPARC. This programme has reached hundreds of thousands of poor urban dwellers with much improved sanitation and facilities for washing; it has also demonstrated how such provision is affordable and manageable for all Indian cities. But this programme has also demonstrated to city authorities the capacity and competence of urban poor organizations, and helped change the relationship between the residents of slums and local government agencies. The paper begins by explaining why sanitation has been neglected, and describes the inadequacies in government sanitation programmes. It then describes the first experiments with community sanitation and the difficult negotiations in many cities, including Mumbai,
WIN
Finally, you may also want to contact the Water Integrity Network (WIN). They are promoting anti-corruption solutions in water, sanitation and water resources management worldwide.
