The sanitation situation assessment of Trichy revealed that a sizeable percentage of the population in the city depends on community toilets/public toilets.

Trichy has been a model for provision of good quality community toilets for its poor residents. The sanitation and hygiene education (SHE) teams, formed by the women members of self-help groups (SHGs), carry out the upkeep, maintenance, and management of about 150 community toilets with the support of Trichy city corporation (TCC). They are organised into a city-level federation known as Women’s Action for Village Empowerment (WAVE). TNUSSP is working intensively with SHE teams and the WAVE federation to strengthen these institutions through monitoring systems and redressal mechanisms.

The interventions on access in Trichy have focused on strengthening the operations and maintenance of community toilet models by introducing standard operating procedures and a ranking system that incentivises SHE teams to maintain standards.

Pilots that aim to make toilets inclusive and gender friendly are being planned.

On the containment aspect, a study on improvement measures for current standards and practices of constructing onsite-sanitation systems (OSSs) of individual households, community toilets, schools, and industries was completed. Additionally, pilots to improve existing OSSs at the household level and at community toilets are being carried out, and options to better manage grey and black water contributing to the pollution load in Trichy’s Uyyakondan canal are being developed.