Tidy and well-maintained toilets could change the image of the city, said Director Planning, Development and Environment Syed Muhammed Shakib.
“The public toilets project is on the cards. Locations have been identified for over 200 toilets at different locations of the city. Now all exchequers of the government have to agree to establish the toilets,” he said.
“It surely gets out of control when you are away from home and you desperately get call of nature while in public. Then what if you do not find a toilet or a proper one?”
The biggest city of our country, Karachi, is in dire need of public toilets to stop walls from reeking of urine and good public health. Women, children, old and disabled persons have to face severe trouble in need of defecating, as they are away from home, and stopping it can have disastrous effect on physical and mental health of a person.
Internationally, the facility of public toilets considered crucial in a society and there are certain standards which are followed while establishing this facility. However, the biggest city and economic hub of our country seems unofficially devoid of it.
It has been more than one and a half year when the city administration launched a public toilet campaign but it could not be extended. The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation offices at CivicCenter have also no working system for maintaining toilets where walls are suffused with red matter of gutka.
Women too have to face trouble because of absence of clean separate washrooms. The elderly and people with disabilities may simply not go out for fear of there being no toilet when they need one.
Deputy Director Town Planning, Sindh Building Control Authority, Muhammed Zia told PPI that no law existed in the metropolis bounding markets to have toilets; however, the master plan book of SBCA recommends that every 3000 sq ft of a market should have three WC, one for ladies, plus one urine and a washbasin.
Pakistan Medical Association Secretary General Dr Mirza Ali Azhar said: “You do not have control over natural system and not addressing call of nature would physically and psychologically disturb you by starting revert system. Stopping excretion for long would upset urine bladder and kidneys by backpressure.”
He said restrooms were a societal need and neat and clean toilets would tell how civilized the society is. Untidy washrooms and decaying structure of a few existing public toilets would bar you from entering one, he added.
