Contents - GANGAPEDIA

City Development Plan for Allahabad Final Report
14.2.2
Community
Toilets &
Bathing
Facilities
14.3 Character
of Slums
There are 111 existing CTCs at various locations in the city which are grossly
inadequate given the size of slum population calling for open defecation in many
places. Salient features of these are identified below:
84 CTCs are connected to sewer lines while 27 have individual septic tanks;
103 CTCs are operational and 8 un-operational;
23 CTCs have no reliable water supply; and
30 do not have any electricity supply.
The responsibility of construction of these CTCs is with the MCA and DUDA. MCA
directly constructs these through its engineering division while DUDA hires agencies
like Sulabh and NEDA for so doing. The operation and maintenance is mainly done
through the private contractors hired by either of the agencies or MCA itself in return
to this people has to pay user charges.
There is proposal for more number of these facilities to be constructed under the
Ganga Action Plan but there are some existing problems that will need to be looked
into. The problems are summarized as follows
Lack of availability of space for construction of CTCs;
Limited disposal options for waste water as majority of areas are not covered by
the existing sewerage system;
Lack of sense of ownership among the residents – facilities are looked upon as
something that has been provided by the government, and it is the government's
responsibility to "run" the CTCs;
There is no involvement of residents in design, location or O&M of the CTCs;
Difficulty in maintaining facilities that are affected by poor quality of
construction resulting in frequent breakdowns, and eventual non-functioning of
the CTCs;
Erratic power supply leading to non-functioning of pumps and thereby
inadequate water supply affecting the cleaning of CTCs;
Resistance to payment of user charges in certain pockets leading to inadequate
financial resources for O&M – "why pay for poor facilities?"
Lack of cohesiveness/ coordination between different agencies in
implementation of the low cost sanitation programs; and
No mechanism for obtaining feedback from the users for any improvements.
The rapid growth and development of slums in Allahabad city has led to deterioration
of its physical environment. Majority of slums have 18 very poor water supply and
sanitation facilities; most are either without sewer or with partially sewer, with
disposal of household waste water and solid wastes taking place directly into open
nallas, which adversely affects drainage in these areas, leading to water logging. The
poor environmental conditions within the slum areas have adversely affected the
health of the residents. Financial constraints on the part of civic authorities and unauthorized
nature of the slums have also contributed to non-delivery or partial
delivery of basic amenities.
Some startling comparisons made in the Oxfam Report between the authorised and
unauthorised slum settlements are –
Poor people living in unauthorized slums do not have access to minimum
basic services while there are better basic services in authorized slums;
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