All the local levels must allocate a fair amount of annual budget for building public toilets
Since the beginning of human civilisation, people have been giving utmost importance to maintaining health and hygiene to prevent themselves from various kinds of communicable diseases that are transmitted to humans as a result of poor sanitation.
Maintaining health and hygiene is more important in the urban centres, where a large number of people reside in a limited area, than in a rural setting. After the new constitution came into force in 2015, the entire country was divided into six metropolitan cities, 11 sub-metropolitan cities, 276 municipalities and 460 rural municipalities, which function as the local levels with well-defined constitutional duties, powers and responsibilities to operate them. The 753 rural and urban municipalities have been further divided into 6,743 wards, which function as the lowest level of government. One of the major duties and responsibilities of the local levels is to maintain health, hygiene and sanitation through the establishment of public toilets, or restrooms, and proper management of waste to be produced in their localities. A municipality is considered healthy and hygienic if it has an adequate number of public toilets with the provision of running water.
As per the survey conducted by Aerosan Sustainable Sanitation, an NGO, in 2019, there are only 58 public toilets in the Kathmandu Valley, which is resided by almost 4 million people. It means one public toilet has to serve a total of 68,965 persons at a time, which is far below the standard set by the World Health Organisation.
Worse still, most of them are in a dilapidated condition, not suitable for their use when one needs to answer the call of nature. All the 18 mu-nicipalities in the Kathmandu Valley have also not conducted a detailed study about the actual number of public toilets that they need to maintain health, hygiene and sanitation. Every year, these municipalities allocate budget for various development projects, but give least priority to building public toilets that are clean and women, disabled and environment-friendly.
Nepal was declared an open defecation free (ODF) zone in 2019 under Sustainable Development Goal 6.
However, most of the people in the rural areas, especially in the Tarai and Karnali regions, are still relieving themselves outdoors. The effectiveness of the ODF campaign has remained only on paper. How can we expect any improvement in the access to public toilets in other parts of the country when the Kathmandu Valley itself does not have enough public toilets even though it has been five years since the first local level elections were held? In order to ensure better access to user-friendly public toilets in the valley, all the municipalities must allocate a certain amount of the annual budget for building public toilets.
Recently, a public toilet, built 25 years ago, was upgraded to a state-of-the-art washroom inward No.
20, that too, with the support from an NGO. Also, asking all restaurants and hotels in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) to allow their toilets for public use is not enough. Not all people, especially those from rural areas, feel comfortable to use them. It is, therefore, imperative that all the municipalities in the valley allocate a fair amount of budget for the construction of public toilets that can be used by all for free.
No-horn rule
The Kathmandu Valley suffers not only from the more visible air and water pollution but also noise pollution. With an endless stream of vehicles, big and small, choking the streets of the valley from morning to evening, drivers honk their horns unnecessarily to weave through the almost unmanageable traffic. In such a scenario, the relaunch of the campaign against needless honking of horns in the valley by Kathmandu's new mayor and the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division is most welcome. The campaign was first launched in April 2017, with thousands of motorists facing action in the subsequent days. However, it lost steam over time, and motorists are back to their old ways.
Areas with heavy traffic, commercial-cum-residential areas inside the Kathmandu Valley have exceeded the noise pollution limit set by the WHO. The constant noise pollution at Kalanki, Putalisadak, Maitighar, Kupondol, Suryabinayak, Asan, Naya Bazaar and Manbhawan poses a serious health hazard to those living there. The no-horn rule should now be part of the new normal in the valley, while efforts should also be made to stop the use of mikes and blaring music by the vendors to attract customers.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 9, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.