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Of govt apathy and public nuisance
KATHMANDU, DEC 03 - Pabitra Sharma, while walking through the narrow alley beside Jana Prabhat School in Tahachal was shocked as she came to the wet stretch in the alley and from which emanated a foul smell. To add to her already shocked state, she saw a man urinating against the wall without even bothering to make space for her to pass. "Shame on such people who have no civic sense, we women have to pretend that we see nothing", said a disgusted Sharma.
She says that she was more angered that the government does nothing to control people who make a nuisance of themselves in public. "I don’t understand why our government or the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) does nothing to control people using the city as a public toilet." She feels that collecting garbage alone is not enough to elevate the status of the city.
Its not just Sharma, there are thousands of Kathmanduites who are compelled to view males urinating in public, and come across walls and street corners soiled with accumulated urine.
Sital Niraula on her way to college faces a similar problem. For Niraula it’s a matter of self-dignity. "I feel such people, who urinate in public are without any dignity." She says that men are more used to it and they take it as granted. "It is a natural process, but if we can control the urge, why can’t they wait till they reach a toilet?" she queried. She feels that it is all the more aggravating to see males urinating near or outside of public toilets.
Deputy Superintendent Police Ganesh K.C. opined that awareness and civic sense among the public is vital to minimise such happenings. He also said that a lack of public toilets was a factor. "It is the compulsion and happens innocently, however some of them are quite shameless," he said.
"Unless we provide people with enough places to answer the calls of nature we cannot be very strict against them. It’s the responsibility of the state to provide more public utilities," he stressed. However, he also informed that they take action against those who intentionally urinate in public with the concept of harassing others.
However, KMC the proper authority that should be checking this nuisance, accepts that existing public toilets in the city are not enough for the increasing population and the thousands of visitors to the city. There are only 32 public toilets to serve over 720,000 people and the increasing number of people coming as visitors. . According to a research conducted in 2000 by Nepal Water for Health, an organisation working for proper water utilisation there is one public toilet for every 22,000 people. Crowded places like Kalanki, Koteshwor, Chabahil, Balaju and many other places do not have public toilets. Among these limited toilets, 16 are under KMC and the remaining are under contract.
According to Robin Shrestha, an engineer of KMC they have also realized the scarcity of public toilets and are set to start construction of more public toilets. "We have surveyed places at Kalanki, Babarmahal and Chabahil. Along with proper maintenance of old ones we will construct some with private sector participation," he informed. He also informed that the KMC had asked for proposals about the construction of toilets and parks, a month-and-a-half ago.
Though these public toilets collect quite a sum of money they are not maintained properly, mainly due to water shortage problems Shrestha says that the most profit-making toilet is near Bir Hospital, which makes above Rs. 300,000 per year. "Even though it’s very difficult to maintain it, scrap scavengers steal taps, pipes, toilet seats and every piece of metal they can lay their hands on," he said.
The KMC does not have authority to arrest these people, however, the local self-governance act of 1998 allows KMC to charge up to Rs. 15,000 for cases of public nuisance. "We don’t have the right to arrest them and nobody pays any money," he said.Posted on: 2003-12-02 10:27
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