Swachh Bharat? Lawson's Bay beach is an open toilet

VISAKHAPATNAM: Call it the ugly truth if you will, but the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation's grand plans to beautify Lawson's Bay beach and park at a cost of over Rs 13.34 crore seems to be literally headed down the drain. The age-old tradition of open defecation practiced by fisherfolk and others is now threatening to mar the ongoing civic project, being taken up with the help of funds from Visakhapatnam Port Trust, with the aim of making the beach a tourists' paradise on the lines of Ramakrishna Beach.
As many as 20,000 fisherfolk reside in nearly 4,500 houses, including thatched huts, in four localities of Pedajalaripeta, Jaladi Yendada, Vasuvanipalem and Siva Ganesh Nagar falling under ward number 7 and 17 of GVMC along Lawson's Bay beach. Of these, nearly 1500 houses have no toilets and community toilets are defunct, due to which nearly 1,000 fisherfolk have been defecating on the sandy Lawson's Bay beach for decades.
Adamant fisherfolk continue to use the beach as an open toilet even after GVMC started setting up the park in January 2013. "Nobody can stop us from defecating at the beach as it is our tradition and we have been doing it for decades. Some people just don't like using toilets. In any case, the Lawson's Bay park is totally located amid the residential locality of fishermen, who in general defecate on the beach," said a defiant Vasuvanipalem fisherman A Mallesu.
Pointing to the reasons for the rampant open defecation on that stretch of the beach, Teddu Shankar, secretary, Visakhapatnam Fishermen's Youth Welfare Association, said: "Many fisherfolk defecate at the beach due to two reasons, the lack of individual toilets and tradition. We have appealed to GVMC to construct 150 individual toilets for households at Pedajalaripeta but have received no response from them. It is not only fisherfolk, many labourers residing at MVP Colony also come to Lawson's Bay beach for defecating," Teddu Shankar said.
According to Shankar, though some fishermen may continue with defecation even after toilets are provided, the civic authorities also need to address issues like the graveyard near the Shanti Ashramam and liquor parties by youth on the beach due to lack of police vigil before developing the park.
Admitting that open defecation is posing a major problem in its beach beautification drive, GVMC executive engineer (projects) Samson Raju said steps are being taken to develop community toilets or Sulabh toilet complexes in the area to sidestep this problem. This apart, the corporation also plans to conduct massive awareness campaigns about the ill effects of open defecation among the masses as part of the beach renovation, Raju said.
"We have spent Rs 7 crore so far on the project. The project was supposed to be completed before December 2014 but was delayed due to Cyclone Hudhud. We will complete all pending works by the end of April this year as per instructions from the commissioner," Raju said.