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There is a glaring dearth of clean and accessible public toilets in the country. Further, even if you can find one, using a public washroom is concerning – there is no assurance of hygiene or privacy. The issue becomes serious especially for women who are often forced to relieve themselves in restrooms with no facilities for disposal of sanitary waste or the very likely possibility of UTIs and bacterial infections. Coupled with lack of water and electricity, women, men, and children are forced to use toilets that are redolent of the stench arising from undisposed waste.
In such a scenario, the Thiruvananthapuram zoo introduced an innovative restroom model for women on World Toilet Day 2017, reported The Better India. ‘Smart She’ is a toilet unit that requires no manual cleaning, and is also equipped with a sanitary napkin vending machine, a napkin incinerator, and stations for baby-feeding and changing of diapers. The toilet is solar-powered and thus, the charged solar panels produce electricity after sunset, thereby solving a gigantic issue. As the user inserts a coin to enter, the sensor-based lighting system gets activated for the time the unit is being used.
This unique model was devised by Eram, a Thiruvananthapuram-based social enterprise. The toilet unit flushes itself with the help of a sensor, using a nominal 1.5 litres per flush and thereby saving huge amounts of water. The toilet floor is sensor-washed, after every 10th use as reported again by TBI. The flushed waste and grey water are further treated with anaerobic decomposition, thereby making the unit eco-friendly.
This technological upgrade is certainly the need of the hour for the betterment of sanitation facilities in the country.
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