Madurai: P Jayammal of Othaveedu village, a newly-added area of the city corporation near Karuppayurani, and her family members have been defecating in the open as they did not have toilet facility in their house. But henceforth, the family will use a toilet, thanks to the joint efforts of the Madurai corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.
In all, 20 families of the village, which has around 150 houses, have now got their own modular ferro cement toilet costing Rs 20,500 each. While the city corporation chipped in with Rs 8,000, BPCL contributed the rest as part of its corporate social responsibility funding.
“Earlier, we were unaware of the health issues caused by open defecation. But, apart from constructing a toilet, they have also created an awareness campaign to demonstrate the ill-effects of open defecation,” the homemaker said. They were chosen based on their social condition after receiving applications. While the construction of the pre-cast toilet takes about two weeks, installation can be done in just a day, say officials.
It was Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), a non-profit development organization, that took up sensitization activities. Officials said the beneficiaries would be monitored to ensure that they made use of the facility. Madurai corporation commissioner Aneesh Sekhar inaugurated the finished toilets on Wednesday morning. On the sidelines of the function, he also met children from the locality and urged them to use the toilet always. He also explained to them the potential health issues that open defecation could cause.
Officials of BPCL said that they were planning to construct 650 toilets out of which 203 had been completed including the recently inaugurated 32 toilets in Vandiyur. They were also constructing toilets for the needy in Dindigul district.
Article Source: Times of India