The partition wall of a public toilet in the Kurla area of Mumbai collapsed on Monday morning. According to the Mumbai Fire Brigade, a woman who had been trapped under the debris was rescued and rushed to Rajwadi Hospital in Ghatkopar.
The incident occurred between 7.15 am and 7.30 am near Navpada Bombay Utkal Samiti, Behind Naaz Hotel in Kurla West. The Mumbai Fire Brigade reported the call at around 7.43 am and rushed to the spot. The woman was rushed to the hospital, and later declared dead.
"We are investigating the matter, cannot comment at this stage," said a BMC official.
This is not the first time that a toilet structure/wall has collapsed in Mumbai, killing or injuring people. The city is currently home to more than 12,000 public toilets, and most of them are decades old. Several incidences of wall collapse have been reported from parts of the city. In February 2018, a portion of a toilet block collapsed in Mankhurd killing three people. This prompted the civic body to conduct a structural audit of public toilet blocks under BMC in all the 24 wards. The civic body then chalked out a plan to pull down the old toilets and re-build them with improved designs to prevent any such event from re-occuring. However, many toilets await repair/rebuilding as claimed by the civic body.
Two months after the Mankhurd incident, in April 2018 two people were killed after the floor of a community toilet caved into a septic tank at around 6 am in Sai-Sadan Chawl, Bhandup West. However, according to BMC officials, the toilet that collapsed at Bhandup was not maintained by the Municipal Corporation. Rather, residents of the area had gotten it constructed with the help of the then corporator.
The firemen then struggled for hours to recover the two bodies (a male and a female) with the help of other agencies. The firemen with the help of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team managed to recover the bodies from the septic tank six hours after the incident.
In February this year, five people were left injured after a septic tank of a community/public toilet exploded in Dharavi's Prem Nagar early on a Saturday morning.
