The City District Government Karachi (CDGK), which claims to have undertaken unprecedented projects for developing the city's infrastructure, is yet to place the construction of public toilets (PT) at public places on its uplift agenda. Despite the pressing need of the facility in the city having over 16 million population, the CDGK is consistently ignoring the public need.
There had been various PTs in old areas of the city like Kharadar, Saddar and Keamari but due to the apathy and negligence of the authorities concerned toward their maintenance, theses facilities either have vanished or are in state of shambles. According to sources there only 70 charged toilets across the city and these are also in a bad condition. Though these latrines are being run by different contractors, they are doing little for their maintenance.
Interestingly, Executive District Officer (EDO) Municipal Services Masood Alam showed his complete incognisance to any such CDGK's program to construct the necessary public facilities and CDGK website is also did not carry any details about the existing facilities or any plan to develop such facilities in the city. However, the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee in collaboration with KMC had started construction of public toilets in Karachi in 2000 but only 31 out of the 38 could be constructed, because of apathy on part of the local government. On the other hand sources said that the issue was being handled by towns' administrations as they were maintaining the existing latrines in their respective areas.
When contacted, Muhammad Nasir, Sadar Town's officer for Health, said the town's administration was maintaining around 25 charged public latrines but it had not built any new one for the last seven years. He further said that some of PTs had been closed to facilitate the infrastructure development works in different area of the Town. He could not say how much funds are allocated for the maintenance and construction of PTs. An official of Gulsha-e-Iqbal Town, who did not want to be named, said that the town had only one charged public latrine at NIPA roundabout, which was built by the town administration.
Business Recorder also tried to contact some officials of other towns but they were not available for comments. Talking to Business Recorder, Ashraf Ali, a Sindh Government employee, said the city government should construct public toilets at city centers, shopping areas and picnic spots.
A student Shoakat said that the people should not only be blamed for relieving themselves in open spaces in the absence of public toilets but also the government who has not bothered to consider the issue. In the absence of the public latrines at public places, the women suffer the most, he added. An international survey made in 2005 had estimated that approximately 45 per cent of Pakistani households were lacking access to toilets and only 51 per cent of houses were connected to some form of drainage.
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