In a bid to create awareness on sanitation and eradicate open defecation, several awareness campaigns were organised in the city on Tuesday, World Toilet Day.
The programmes reinforced the State government’s thrust to eradicate open defecation.
At Pallavaram, Commissioner of Municipal Administration Chandrakant B. Kamble interacted with school students and also inspected a few toilets at Rengasamy Street and GST Road.
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He told reporters that they were attending to repairs in public toilets in municipalities and corporations across the State.
However, despite availability of water supply, people continued to stay away from sanitary complexes in a few localities.
In the city’s southern suburbs, Tambaram Municipality is among the urban local bodies where a complete toilet survey has been done.
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A recent survey revealed that among 10,597 households in slum areas, less than 8,000 had access to toilets.
Families living around seven water bodies in Irumbuliyur, Selaiyur, Pulikuradu and Kadaperi openly defecate as there are no toilets.
Ajay Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Municipal Administration, flagged off an awareness rally at Poonamallee Municipality.
Poonamallee municipal commissioner B.V. Surendra Sha said that the existing four toilet complexes were repaired. “We have also surveyed the areas that are in dire need of sanitary complexes. In the first phase, we have chosen five locations to provide solar sensor-based ‘Namma toilet’ units worth Rs. 80.50 lakh,” he said.
The ‘Namma toilets’ will come up in places, including Ambedkar Nagar and Keelma Nagar shortly.