Letters: The neat and clean act

Apropos Bhupesh Bhandari's column "Build toilets in the mind first" (White Knight, August 29), there is no doubt that educating people about the negatives of defecating in the open is a pre-requisite for the success of the government programme of providing toilets to every home.

Apart from this, there are issues of water availability and the sewerage network. It will be useful to revisit the traditional concept of toilets in rural areas. It is nothing but a pit that is used for defecation and the faeces are immediately covered with soil.

Over a period of time, the faeces turn into good manure that can be dug out and the pit recycled. Households can keep multiple pits depending on the space in their premises. The government can be help by providing low-cost shelters for these toilets, possibly mounted on wheels so that they can be moved from one pit to another.

Kishor Kulkarni, Mumbai

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