Public bathrooms: Lack of restrooms a health hazard

LAHORE: Most of the public restrooms controlled by the city government are unusable and the administration does not have the money to do anything about it, said government officials.

Executive District Officer (Community Development) Tanvir Ahmed Khan, who is in charge of public facilities, said little to no work has been done to address the city’s growing need for public bathrooms. He said that there were 45 to 50 public bathrooms under the city government but 60 percent were in an unusable condition.

“This a very important issue because congested public bathrooms mean bad hygiene, which can lead to sicknesses related to waste such as typhoid and dysentery,” said District Officer (Public Health) Tariq Ramazan. “The quality of facility also matters as there have to be adequate cleaning mechanisms to prevent hygiene-related illnesses.”

Ramazan said proposals for projects to build public bathrooms were usually not considered because of budget constraints. “One option that could be explored is renting out facilities to ensure that each bus station has at least a few working restrooms,” he said. A city government official said that no restrooms had been built at such places in the last ten years, though the Parks and Horticulture Authority had built some bathrooms at major public parks on the orders of the chief minister.

He too said that funding was the main issue. “Even at City Hall and the DCO’s office there aren’t enough bathrooms for the number of people serving at the offices,” said the official. “The people at the Kutchery have to use the nearby mosque while some officers have an attached bathroom.”

A city government buildings official said that two years ago DCO Sajjad Bhutta had sought a cost estimate for a project to tear down the unusable bathrooms and replace them with new facilities. The DCO ended up backing out due to the costs, he said.

“There was a project in Shahalami which ended up costing around Rs800,000-Rs900,000 for six or seven bathrooms,” said the building official. “It was just too expensive.”

DO (Finance) Mian Waheed said that there was an allocation in the buildings budget for repairs to bathrooms. He said that the government had not allocated any money for the construction of public restrooms specifically.

Maulana Shahzad, a PHA superintendent, said that the authority was responsible for public bathrooms in parks.

Shah Rukh Younis, who works at a multinational business, said the lack of toilet facilities was a major problem for tourists visiting the city’s sights. “At places like Data Darbar people are using the sidewalks and alleys,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2011.