On the morning of 4 February, Harish Tikedar, Ganesh Soni, and Mohammed Isafil Ansari waited in a queue to use the community toilet in the Indira Nagar slum in eastern Mumbai.
All of a sudden the floor collapsed, plunging Tikedar, Soni and Ansari into the septic tank 15-feet below.
Two others who also fell – Sirajjudin Turat and Ramakant Kanojia – managed to hold on to the sides until they were rescued.
“I was submerged up to my shoulders in the slush,” says Turat. “I could feel it pulling me down but somehow held on to a slab. Then some people pulled me up and I passed out.”
The five men who were pulled out were unrecognizable, covered in feces. They were all taken to a nearby hospital but Tikedar, Soni and Ansari did not survive.
In Mumbai’s slums, the simple act of relieving oneself is fraught with danger, especially in the slums of M-East ward where population density is high, and the few public amenities are crumbling.
Are you sure that's not McAllen Jim?
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