Monday, May 11, 2009

The Great Indian Mobile (non)Toilet

There are always lots of curious sights in India but here at Kovalam Beach one of the weirdest (in my humble opinion) is the abandoned "mobile" toilet (see pictures below - the first two are overall views then a couple of "close ups"). This particular mega-portapotty is located at Samudra Beach (about 2 km north of Hawa Beach) outside the fenced compound of the Kerala Tourism's Hotel Samudra. There are two more of these behemoths at the base of the hill that leads from the bus stop outside the Leela Hotel compound down to the northern end of Hawa Beach.






































The one that I've shown you photos of at least makes some kind of sense since, in the picture below, it appears that there was some kind of a plan to connect the toilet van to a water supply and waste treatment scheme. I can't think what else this complex of tanks and pipes is if not sewage/waste water treatment although it does seem rather an odd thing to have so conspicuously on the grounds of a hotel. The two that are abandoned at Hawa Beach (one of two beaches at Kovalam Beach itself - I don't really consider Samudra as part of Kovalam Beach) must have been EXCEEDINGLY difficult to bring here (considering that the only two approaches to this location are hills and the only one wide enough to bring one of these down is referred to as cardiac hill by tourists since it is very steep). Also there is no water supply nearby if they were going to be "plumbed in".















So whose brilliant idea was it to bring these three vans here and why go to all the work of bringing something so large and difficult to move to a location only to not use it and have it decay and rust so pathetically. My (completely cynical) guess is that it was a responsible tourism kind of initiative (to keep people from answering the call of nature among the coconut palms or on the beach) that lacked funding and commitment for follow through and once the units made it to their locations nobody really cared whether they were actually set up and used. I'd say that people just washed their hands of it but that wouldn't have been possible in this case as there was no water available :).

The final picture below is where I think, based on the smell (this particular feature is not yet available on Blogger - perhaps in 2050 a scratch and sniff version will be available), people may currently be attending to their toilet needs.