By JOSHUA MASINDE
Published January 6, 2009
KAMPALA, Uganda- 'This place stinks'; a graffiti in a Kampala public toilet curtly tells its story. But nature's call is defiant, and so people simply ignore the warning.
The contradiction however is that this stink is lucrative business in the city. Public toilets total about 300 in Kampala according to Mohamed Kirumira, acting chief health inspector at Kampala City Council (KCC). Some of the public toilets were constructed courtesy of a World Bank loan to the Ministry of Local Government through Local Government Development Programme between 1999 and 2006. Some Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), also constructed more public toilets, especially in Kampala's peri-urban informal settlements, through projects like Kampala Urban Sanitation Programme and the Ecological Sanitation Project. Such toilets, constructed by the NGOs and other organizations, are found in the high density areas like slums to bolster the existing ones in the city, most of which are located in car parks, recreational centres, schools and at police stations.
When the NGOs and other community based organisations construct the public toilets in such peri-urban settlements, they are handed over to the area local council chairpersons, who determine, in consultation with user committees in respective areas, how much to be charged and the modalities of management.
Here is where the insanity creeps in. Many a time, when the person who donated the land for construction of a public toilet by the NGOs ends up falling out with the LC chairperson or with the user committee, the person ends up turning the public toilet into a private toilet.
"Many public toilets in slum areas have been turned into private toilets even when the toilet was constructed by an NGO," Kirumira said.
There are also cases where public toilets are arbitrarily demolished by private developers. One such incident occurred in Kisenyi, where a public toilet was demolished, and a bus terminal built on the ground upon which the toilet once stood.
"This often happens when land is sold to individuals who demolish the toilets, yet the donors used between Ush20 million (US$10695) to Ush30 million (US$16043) to set them up." For instance, about Ush30 million (US$16043) was used in the construction of a public toilet along Namirembe road, yet it didn't last for one year. Now, there's a bus terminal in its place.
Mamerito Mugerwa, Kira town council mayor in May 2009 spent a night in jail after he reportedly mobilised some of his area residents to block the demolition of a public toilet in Bweyogerere. The mayor had argued that the land where the public toilet was situated is a road reserve, and should not be developed by an individual, who had claimed ownership of the plot and had fenced off the place, including the public toilets.
But Kirumira says that the situation was much worse during the Idi Amin and Milton Obote regimes when public toilets were under the management of the city council.
Dr. Mesaki Mubiru, the director of Health Services at KCC, says before 1989, public toilets were dirtier and posed a big threat to public health. The privatisation of their management meant that it was the responsibility of the contractors to provide soap, toilet paper, and to clean the public toilets to ensure they don't compromise the public health.
Although there was some improvement following the privatization, poor management threatens to derail the process. There have been instances of political interference and tensions between KCC and private developers.
A survey conducted by EAiF reveals that neither the contractors nor the attendants adhere to most of the terms stipulated in their contracts. Women and men share the same toilets while adequate water is not provided. Users are also routinely overcharged. The terms in the agreement specify that the contractor shall charge a fee of not more than Ush 100 per person per entry with the exception of minors, disabled and all school children in 'school uniform' who shall be exempted. However many of public toilet attendants increased the charges from Ush100 (US$0.05) to Ush200 (US$0.1), yet they pay the same amount of money to KCC under contract agreement.
Equally disturbing is that some cooking and eating joints adjoin some of these toilets. This is a looming public health disaster still largely ignored.
Reach Joshus Masinde at jmasinde@eafricainfocus.com
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