Pay-Toilets? When the Walls Are Free?

October 16, 2007

Pay-Toilets? When the Walls Are Free? ENVIRONMENT-PAKISTAN:Pay-Toilets? When the Walls Are Free? Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Oct 4 (IPS) - At a pay-and-use toilet at Karachi’s Civil Hospital, Rustom Ali asserts: "I’m an employee here so why should I pay?" Hari Ram, the 60-year-old caretaker, is too meek to argue and lets Ali in. "Very few people pay," Ram mutters. The four-unit squat latrine, two each for men and women, was constructed in 2003 near the hospital’s outpatient department by the Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), an organisation originally formed in this southern port city to help tackle crime. It has since taken on the task of providing Karachi's citizenry with public toilets that work. A little over a hundred people use this public toilet on a given day, according to Ram.

Because the toilets in the wards are filthy the users include patients and hospital staff as well. Mohammad Arshad is forced to bring his sick wife all the way from the second floor of the gynaecological ward, a good ten minutes walk, to this pay toilet. "I don’t blame her, it’s in a terrible state," says Arshad, adding that he does not mind paying the two rupees (0.032 US dollar) for using this clean convenience. They have been at the hospital for 15 days now. But the attitude of the driver of a doctor working at the hospital is typical. "It’s a government-run hospital, so it should be free," he asserts. "There are latrines inside the hospital but they are filthy.’’ He however acknowledges that the pay-latrine is dry and clean only because a small fee is charged. http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=39514

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