Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110

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Delhi's 'ban' on waterless urinals needs a rethink, says expert

The failure to correctly maintain the 800-plus waterless urinals in the city of Delhi has led to their unpopularity and upcoming ban, according to one manufacturer, who argues that there should be a rethink on the decision.

There has been a long-running dispute regarding these urinals, which were installed by the old Municipal Corporation of Delhi as part of a PPP project to initially satisfy the needs of visitors to the 2010 the Commonwealth Games, but last week it was announced that three municipal corporations in the city were to take over their upkeep from the private contractors whose responsibility it had been to maintain them - the consensus being that the contractors had simply not done a good enough job which had led to the widespread belief that waterless urinals were unviable. Plans are now in place to convert them to conventional urinals.

Simon A. Davis, CEO of Falcon Waterfree Technology, has responded with the following statement:

"The Municipality of Delhi is taking a step away from hygienic, environmentally friendly restroom solutions by wrongfully mandating the removal of waterless urinal technology. It fails to acknowledge the obvious health and cost benefits of this technology. The Municipality is blaming the private entities' lack of maintenance as the cause for removal, but is neglecting to take responsibility for the fact that they have refused to adhere to the maintenance programme contract offered with the purchased urinals.

"The Municipality of Delhi refused to participate in the maintenance programme when the urinals were installed several years ago; the urinals have not been properly cleaned or cared for in years and are not functioning properly as a result. Instead of banning a technology responsible for better hygiene and the savings of water, energy and greenhouse gases, the city should invest in the proper cleaning and maintenance of the urinals.

"Waterless urinal technology has saved over 20 billion gallons of water in the last decade, and with proper maintenance and cleaning practices, offers a more hygienic restroom solution with up to five times less bacteria than traditional flushing urinals. As with any other technology, waterless urinals are evolving, but without cleaning and maintenance all these innovations - that help make the restroom cleaner while saving precious natural resources - are lost."

E: [email protected]
W: www.falconwaterfree.com

9th October 2014