Of the six public toilets visited by a local journalist in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, “none had an operational flushing system in the males section”.
A worker at one of the toilets “says this is because of mishandling and poor maintenance. “The people who use some of these toilets are used to pit latrines. For some of them you feel sorry because they are from the village.
When all those people converge here, and start using these things, you find parts missing or the flush not working in a very short time. And also those people who rule over us seem to have forgotten that these places exist. They know how these places are but they can’t send money to repair,” [the attendant] says”.
[...] “Recently, Parliament summoned Kampala Central LC III chairperson, Godfrey Nyakaana over allegations that he tampered with the collection of city revenue that led to a loss of Shs260m from public toilets”.
[The toilet works said]: “There are some times when our water supply is cut off because of not clearing the water bill. In such times, we face difficulty in keeping the place clean but usually our bosses improvise and send us a truck of water. We give all the money we collect to our bosses,” refusing to identify them. This has happened twice in the past one year, he adds. Regardless of the dilapidated state, there is a considerable effort by the workers to keep the facilities reasonably clean. At whatever time of the day you pass by, you will find the floors wet and almost slippery, dripping from the efforts of constant washing”.
[...] “When contacted about the state of the toilets, Kampala City Council’s (KCC) Public Relations Officer, Mr Simon Muhumuza, gave the notion that according to him, all was well. “I don’t know about those complaints,” he replied. “If there are people who complain about that, let them come to us,” he added. Mr Muhumuza also declined to support the addition of toilet facilities in the city centre”.
“Of course the toilets are not enough. They cannot be enough. Do you want us to put up toilets everywhere in the city? That is not possible. Those toilets are supposed to be for emergency purposes only,” he says.
Source: John K. Abimanyi, Monitor, 21 Apr 2009
