Clean, well managed public toilets?

The opening of two new public toilets by the Dhaka North City Corporation is certainly something to celebrate in a city that is notorious for lack of such facilities. What is even more promising is that our Mayor of DNCC has declared that around another 90 will be constructed.

The glaringly few public toilets in a city of two crore people show how little thought our city authorities have given to this essential public service. The ones that are available are so filthy that they are unusable for people. The result has been for city dwellers to treat walls, drains and garbage dumps as public toilets, adding to the stench and unhygienic conditions that many parts of the city are plagued with. For female city dwellers it has meant refraining from going to the bathroom for hours, a major cause of infection and kidney disease.

In such a bleak scenario, it is refreshing to note that the new toilets, constructed with the help of H&M Conscious Foundation and WaterAid Bangladesh, have separate facilities for female and disabled citizens. There are separate male and female chambers, showers and lockers, safe drinking water and round the clock surveillance cameras to ensure security.

We commend the mayor for taking this much-needed initiative and hope that he will be able to complete his mission. It is however extremely important that these public toilets are managed properly with regular cleaning and maintenance. We note that professional cleaners and female caretakers have been employed for the current facilities. We hope we will see many more such toilets in the city in the near future.