Unmaintained Toilets ‘hotbeds’ of Corona spread in India: Pragya Akhilesh

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It is well known that access to clean water and proper sanitation facilities play a key role in maintaining public health. In this interview Pragya Akhilesh tells us how the absence of proper toilets has exacerbated India’s health crisis amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

Q) Is it true that toilets have become hotbeds for disease spread in the pandemic?

A) The lockdown has had its own problems with decreasing toilet usage. In 2020, there has been a massive decline in actual toilet usage in rural India. This is mainly because toilets are in poor shape, roofs are falling, doors are breaking or soggy and there is an acute shortage of water supply. The outcome of this is that toilets have become hotbeds for disease spread. The sanitation workers are cleaning these toilets without the accessibility of any kind of protection gear. The government’s silence on toilet maintenance is shocking as the ‘value of service’ is declining and because of that all the pressure falls on the sanitation workers. All through the lockdown the sanitation workers have continued this work but they have not been given their due like health care professionals in India.

Q) You have been recording 10 lakh toilets in India and have found 46,000 new dry latrines in active use just in the lockdown. Can you tell us about it?

A) Despite the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (PEMSR) Act, 2013, the implementation in the informal settlements in the rural areas of India is completely fractured therefore ‘dry latrines’ are one of the biggest crises in 2021 India. These toilets damage the health of the sanitation workers and the communities severely. In the India-Bangladesh border areas, we found a series of many ‘hanging toilets.’ The unmanaged effluents mix with nearby water bodies even polluting the drinking water! Because these areas are remote, there is no accessible sanitation coverage. Lockdown has also resulted in communities building ‘dry latrines’ by digging small pits in nearby compounds, because women do not feel comfortable sending their children to far-away toilets.

Q) The government and institutions are spending so much on the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Then why is there still the prevalence of these types of toilets?

A) In India we are only focusing on building toilets. There is less focus on eradication of the previously constructed dry latrines. There is a vast difference between the database of the urban and rural sanitation coverage in India. The hanging toilets and the dry latrines found in the semi-urban and rural areas have continued to exist also because we have not been able to reach them. The sanitary toilets built under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) have their own unique problems. In this way both, insanitary and newly constructed sanitary toilets, have become burdens for India’s sanitation workers. There is no focus on the fact that 80 per cent of the sanitation workers are not even reaching the age of retirement. Even within sanitary toilets they are forced to manually scavenge excreta because of non-availability of continued water supply.

Q) Why is there a non-availability of continued water supply in spite of increasing water coverage in the last decade?

A) In rural areas, even in the households which have improved water coverage like the availability of piped water supply, long power cuts hinder toilet usage. If there are 6 to 8-hour power cuts then how will the tanks get filled enough for every flush. People therefore leave the toilets without flushing them. Even the pour flush technique can only be accessed if there is an availability of unimproved water supply nearby. This again puts focus on the proximity of the water supply for single toilet usage from mobile containers. So, if the built-in water supply cannot be used then the procedure becomes very complex even after the efforts to integrate water services with sanitation services in every toilet.

Q) Can dirty toilets be also the reason why people prefer to defecate in the open?

A) Many women still chose to defecate in the open even in big cities like Delhi and Mumbai. For example, people defecate on banks of Yamuna early in the morning in Delhi. This is also because the amount of water in the containment is not directly proportional to the number actually using it. So, if you are going to use the toilet after 9 A.M there is no water left anymore. So, community toilet building is completely different to household toilet building. The water usage and tank capacity have to be kept in mind, otherwise people will continue to defecate in the open. Another important aspect is toilets without continued water supply become hotbeds for disease spread. The government has no understanding of the current state of the toilets they have probably built 5 years ago. While sanitation workers continue to get sick, forced to clean these toilets, hundreds of these toilets are in poor shape and almost abandoned.

*The interview was conducted by the Co-ordinator, Sulabh Sewa Campaign, Mumbai.