Modern toilet equipped with commodes, squatting pans, urinals, breast-feeding and dressing room facilities in Motijheel. PHOTO: STAR

Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) is going to open 36 community toilets to the city dwellers next month, DCC officials said.

The toilets built under the Urban Primary Health Care Project (UPHCP) have modern facilities for the use of people, especially female.

The DCC signed an agreement with UPHCP in October last year to construct 45 community latrines by June this year. DCC sources said they have already completed construction of 34 latrines.

"We will construct another two toilets soon. Construction of nine latrines has been suspended due to land dispute and objection from influential people," a source at the DCC said.

The toilets are equipped with high and low commodes, urinals, basins. Besides, there are breast feeding and dressing rooms and separate entrance for men and women," said Sultan Ahmed, executive engineer, UPHCP.

The project is being implemented at a cost of around $1 million. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided grant to bear 66 percent of the expenditure and the rest comes from the government.

"We have faced many problems to set up these community latrines. The major problem was to manage land. In some areas, local leaders and ward commissioners forcibly stopped our work," said Sultan.

UPHCP officials said three types of latrines were set up under the project. Type A latrines are built on 372 square feet space with two low and two high commodes, one standing and one flat urinal, five basins and a dressing room.

Type-B is about 649 square feet equipped with three low commodes and two high commodes, two standing and three flat urinals, five basins and a breast-feeding and dressing room.

Type-C toilets are built on 837 square feet space with four low and two high commodes, two standing and five flat urinals, six basins and a breast-feeding and dressing room.

City dwellers, especially working women, hope that the community latrines will be very useful for them.

"I have to stay in my shop for long time every day. I hesitate to breastfeed my child in open space," said Shahida Jaman, mother of a one-year-old baby, who runs a grocery shop in Mohammadpur Town Hall Market.

Habibul Bahar works in private office at Karwan Bazar. He has to go from one place to another for official work. But he does not find any suitable public toilet in the city as most of them are unusable.

"DCC should set up more such toilets in the city," Bahar said.

Sources said LGRD ministry, donor agencies and the mayor of DCC have asked UPHCP to give the final touch to these latrines by this month so that the latrines could be opened by end-July.

"DCC has already floated tender to lease out the maintenance of these latrines," said a high official of UPHCP.