BHOPAL: Public toilets in the city and those at hospitals are likely to spread virus as visitors to these conveniences can be seen standing next to each other inside.
In shopping malls and private offices, the management ensures that urination boxes are used on an alternate basis, but, in public toilets, there is no such arrangement, adding to the risk of spread of the virus.
The staff deployed at public toilets is not even aware of any Covid guidelines or protocols. They say the toilets are cleaned and sanitized in time, but the visitors stand next to each other at urination boxes and they cannot ask them to refrain from doing so. The cleaning is not sufficient to kill the virus and, even if the toilets are sanitized, the visitors have to be kept at bay to stop the spread of the virus.
But no such measures are visible in the public toilets of Bhopal. The modular toilets placed around the slum areas, too, need the attention of the authorities as there is no attendant available there. These toilets are not even sanitized, unlike public toilets.
Similarly, the toilets at hospitals, too, are not hygienic and are likely hotbeds for the spread of the coronavirus.
There are over 150 public and community toilets in Bhopal. In none of the toilets are the attendants asked to ensure that visitors do not stand next to each other. The situation at the modular toilets is even worse.
‘Social distancing a must’
Bhopal Incinerators member Dr Deepal Shah said that social distancing is a must to save us from the virus. If that is not followed, there is a great risk of spread of the disease, he added.
‘No guidelines for us’
‘The toilets are sanitized by the attendants and we don’t have any guidelines with us by means of which we can stop people from using the toilets simultaneously’
— Harshit Tiwari, deputy commissioner at BMC
