adminVusumuzi Dube Municipal Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council is faced with a public toilet crisis, amid revelations that out of a total of 97 toilets, 44 are not functioning after being vandalised by the public. Health services director Dr Zanele Hwalima said while it was their wish to have all 97 toilets functioning for the convenience of the public, they had to close them after the public either stole chambers or demolished part of the infrastructure.
The health services director was speaking during the opening of a refurbished public toilet at the Large City Hall, where she called on the corporate world to chip in and assist in boosting health delivery in the city.
“It is unfortunate that we can’t get all our public toilets to be functioning due to the problem of vandalism. You find that out of 97, 44 are not working because of vandalism. Some have gone for years without functioning as we are looking for resources to resuscitate them.
“As a local authority we do our part but we feel a lot still has to be done. Keeping the toilets clean boils down to members of the public themselves, noting that the more we neglect these toilets then there is a sharp increase in open defecation which goes on to have serious health consequences,” said Dr Hwalima.
She said it was because of this reason that they had taken the route of leasing out the toilets to private individuals, who then went on to charge a small amount for people to access the toilets.
“Some people thought it was unfair on our part to lease out these toilets because residents will then be made to pay a certain fee to gain entry but it was the best route which we could take.
For starters we have people on the ground to monitor that they are always clean and secondly someone would be more careful in using them knowing that they paid to be there.
“One thing that we should note is that while we might be comfortable in practising open air defecation, it then goes on to expose us to such ailments as diarrhoea. Let us not forget that having toilets is just not about the structure but also has to do with what is deposited there hence the need to be always considerate in the way we use these toilets,” said Dr Hwalima.
Meanwhile, investigations by this publication revealed that most major buildings in the city do not have publicly accessible toilet facilities. Even the local authority’s Tower Block, Revenue Hall and the City Hall do not have any toilets that are accessible to the public. At the Tower Block the council locked the public toilets a number of years ago.
Sunday News also found that most alleys had a foul smell emanating from human stools and urine. The toilets that were leased out by the council charge between two and three rand and close at 5pm, meaning after hours residents have to resort to the alleys to relieve themselves.
The lack of accessible toilets has also resulted in Centenary Park, an outdoor area used for recreation, picnics, photo shooting by newlyweds and as a playground by children, being converted into a favoured open defecation area because it offers many hiding places.
The park is littered all over with an overwhelming amount of human stools, some of the human excretion is still fresh and it emits an overpowering stench that has caused the number of people who frequent the park to dwindle.
Commenting on the matter, the city’s mayor Councillor Martin Moyo said there was a need for the public to adopt a culture of cleanliness and not leave this to the local authority alone.
“I know that the city needs more public convenience places but our residents must also realise that these are not our toilets but they own them so it’s a two-pronged approach. Council and the residents must have a responsibility in keeping the toilets clean and in shape,” said Clr Moyo.
The rampant defecation and urination due to the unavailability of public toilets has resulted in a number of businesses installing gates at alleys to keep offenders out of their areas.
This has in turn reduced the use of alleys leading to a better integration of automobile and foot traffic in a neighbourhood. It has also put people’s lives at risk as they would be trapped in the alleys should they decide to get away from a fire using the fire-escape.
Open defecation increases the risk of outbreaks of cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid and other sanitation diseases.
Access to toilets is a human right and key in disease prevention, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). WHO predicts that 2,7 billion people, about 40 percent of the world’s population, will be without access to basic sanitation by 2015 if the current trend continues.
Bongani Ndlovu