With the city short of more than 64,000 toilet seats, and the demand-supply gap continuing to increase, slum sanitation in Mumbai will remain inadequate for at least five more years.

The average ratio of persons per toilet in the city’s slums is 81:1. In some slums, like those in the A, S and F South wards, the ratio is as staggering as 273 persons per toilet seat.

Now, after a long delay, the civic administration has undertaken phase II of its Slum Sanitation Programme (SSP), which was to begin in 2006. The plan is to build 35,000 toilet seats through 183 blocks but progress has been slow. Construction is under way on 3,500 seats; civic officials said 57 blocks have been completed with 1,128 toilet seats already in use.

“Construction of toilet blocks is still held up for lack of space. The BMC has not able to build toilets on land where permission is needed from the MHADA, the district collector, airport and other authorities,” said a senior civic official handling SSP-2.

“Builders undertaking redevelopment schemes in slums have been hindering the civic administration from constructing toilet blocks. The delay in SRA schemes has left dwellers without any toilet facilities.”

Phase 2, with a budget of Rs 450 crore, was to be completed in 2011; officials now admit it will take a minimum of five years to construct all the toilet blocks. “The cost has also gone up since the estimate was made in a 2001 survey. It will take at least Rs 1,000 crore for Mumbai to be free of open defecation,” the officer added.

The SSP was launched by the BMC with the help of the World Bank in 1997 but implementation began three years later. Till 2003, around 330 toilet blocks had been constructed, with 6,050 toilet seats. The current total is 78,000.

According to a World Bank survey on sanitation in 2001, around 5 per cent of population, mainly women and children, had to defecate openly. The proportion has gradually increased. According to a 2006 World Bank document, Partnering with Slum Communities for Sustainable Sanitation in a Megalopolis, 20 per cent of all slum dwellers now defecate in the open.

The BMC now plans to construct toilet blocks around the railway line for use of slum dwellers on railway land. These form the chunk of those who defecate in the open.