Reality check: Is Hyderabad really open defecation free?

Hyderabad: Peeing in the public has become commonplace in Hyderabad. Unused pavements and corners filled with litter and trash are the favorite places of people who just need to empty their bladder on the road.

Despite written warnings on the walls and temporary barricades, denizens continue to urinate in the open, undoing the cleaning works done by the sanitation workers of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Incidentally, Hyderabad was declared open defecation free (ODF) in 2017.

Recently, officials from the Sangareddy civic body penalized a drunk man to the tune Rs. 30,000 as he was caught peeing on the premises of the Government Guest House in the town. This penalty has once again brought the open urination into focus.

Before we begin to question the people for urinating in public, let us see if Hyderabad city has enough urinals or restrooms for the residents. Hyderabad has a population of around 1.2 crore a and the GHMC states it operates 1,385 public urinals within city limits. This means there is one restroom for 10,000 people.

The civic body is operating public urinals in busy areas like Dilsukhnagar, Mehdipatnam, Tolichowki and Balanagar areas. However, the fact of the matter is, these urinals are not maintained well, forcing the people to paid restrooms or quickly empty the bladder at every and available roadside corner.

While the public urinals for women are hardly visible on the roads. Though the civic body is operating nearly two dozen ‘She Toilets’ but many have complained of lack of maintenance and unhygienic conditions.

Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO), which works under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) mandates one public restroom for every kilometre. The road network of Greater Hyderabad works out to 9,0000 km and by the norms of CPHEEO, Hyderabad needs nearly 10,000 public toilets to make the city an open defecation free.