GUNTUR: With the Guntur Municipal Corporation (GMC) constructing thousands of individual and community toilets in the various localities of the city under the Swachh Bharat and Swachh Andhra Pradesh Missions, the problem of open defecation will soon become a thing of the past.
So far, the GMC officials have constructed about 7,000 individual toilets along with providing water facility in most of the localities.
Observing that the open defection had become a cause of concern in maintaining better sanitation as well as in controlling the spread of communicable diseases particularly in the slum areas and the panchayats on the outskirts of the city, which would soon come under the purview of corporation, the GMC officials gave special emphasis to such area and took up the process on construction of individual toilets with the funds sanctioned under the Swachh Bharat Mission and Swatch Andhra Pradesh Mission taken up by the the Centre and State Government respectively.
After handing over the responsibility of constructing the toilets to the local women groups, the officials had taken up geo-tagging in three phases of the construction works and released the funds accordingly.
Out of the Rs 15,000 spent for the construction of each individual toilet, the State contributed Rs 11,000 and the Centre chipped in with Rs 4,000.
With this, the beneficiaries, most of them daily wage labourers, said they were now making use of the toilets and avoiding open defection. “Earlier, we used go far away from the residential locality for attending to nature’s calls and faced a lot of inconvenience. But, now, all our concerns have been addressed with the GMC constructing toilets with water facility”, said Badugu Avvamma of Swarna Bharat Nagar locality. Similar, was the response from the residents of Tuphan Colony and Goruntla village.
Meanwhile, some residents, who initially did not show much interest in getting the toilets built as they thought that they had to bear a part of the cost of the same, are now pleading with the GMC officials to extend the facility to them also.
Maintaining that the construction of toilets would be a continuous process, GMC Commissioner C Anuradha added that the civic body would build toilets at the houses of all those who needed them. “As per a survey taken up by the GMC, there is need for construction of several more toilets in the city and we are heading in that direction”, she averred.
“Apart from individual toilets, we are also taking up the construction of community toilets, in areas where there is no space in households to have their own toilets”, she said.
So far, the GMC officials have constructed about 7,000 individual toilets along with providing water facility in most of the localities.
Observing that the open defection had become a cause of concern in maintaining better sanitation as well as in controlling the spread of communicable diseases particularly in the slum areas and the panchayats on the outskirts of the city, which would soon come under the purview of corporation, the GMC officials gave special emphasis to such area and took up the process on construction of individual toilets with the funds sanctioned under the Swachh Bharat Mission and Swatch Andhra Pradesh Mission taken up by the the Centre and State Government respectively.
After handing over the responsibility of constructing the toilets to the local women groups, the officials had taken up geo-tagging in three phases of the construction works and released the funds accordingly.
Out of the Rs 15,000 spent for the construction of each individual toilet, the State contributed Rs 11,000 and the Centre chipped in with Rs 4,000.
With this, the beneficiaries, most of them daily wage labourers, said they were now making use of the toilets and avoiding open defection. “Earlier, we used go far away from the residential locality for attending to nature’s calls and faced a lot of inconvenience. But, now, all our concerns have been addressed with the GMC constructing toilets with water facility”, said Badugu Avvamma of Swarna Bharat Nagar locality. Similar, was the response from the residents of Tuphan Colony and Goruntla village.
Meanwhile, some residents, who initially did not show much interest in getting the toilets built as they thought that they had to bear a part of the cost of the same, are now pleading with the GMC officials to extend the facility to them also.
Maintaining that the construction of toilets would be a continuous process, GMC Commissioner C Anuradha added that the civic body would build toilets at the houses of all those who needed them. “As per a survey taken up by the GMC, there is need for construction of several more toilets in the city and we are heading in that direction”, she averred.
“Apart from individual toilets, we are also taking up the construction of community toilets, in areas where there is no space in households to have their own toilets”, she said.