Wednesday, March 05, 2014: The city of Mumbai has large number of corporates, but ironically a slum has taken the initiative to go solar in a unique way. One of the few solar installations in the city is a solar powered public toilet run by Triratna Prerna Mandal (TPM), in Santa Cruz (West).
According to India Solar Market report, the executive president of TPM, Dayanand Jadhav said that the basic reason, for setting up the toilet service was set-up was “necessity”. He said, “When water and electricity became expensive for us, our lines were cut for a short period. We continually faced the pressure of mounting bills. That’s when we decided to move to sustainable sources of water and energy and we haven’t turned back since.”
Now, TPM feeds all its water needs from the two ring wells, which were dug in the area by the organisation, and the power comes from solar panels. More than 1,000 people from the nearby Kothu Wadi slum depend on TPM’s toilet service for sanitation, and the annual charges for using the service is Rs 150 for a whole family. Earlier, the toilet used to feed on grid electricity with monthly bills of up to Rs 6,000 every month, without water heaters.
Jadhav said that they needed 24 hours of light for the safety of women. When they heard about the government’s green initiatives, they sent a proposal. “In November 2011, a solar water-heating system and a panel for electricity, costing Rs 385,000 was installed in the toilet along with LED energy-saving bulbs. The government paid for 90 per cent of the total cost with Observer Research Foundation paying for the rest,” he added.
The toilet has solar water heaters of 1,000 litres of capacity with up to 60 degrees Celsius, in a day. It has a half KW solar photovoltaic panel with a nine-hour battery backup. The people of the are claim that their electricity expenditure has gone down by 45 per cent.
