However, the stench that these public spots spread is bothersome to the passersby.[break]
“Mobile public toilets are quite comfortable, especially the ones at Basantpur,” says 21-year-old Mary Shrestha, a regular visitor there. But she adds that the government-managed public potties are very poorly managed and need to be cleaned more often and maintained. Indeed, the government-managed public toilets are not worth entering.
“We construct the toilets and hand them over to the management and don’t oversee them directly,” said Shanta Ram Pokharel, Department Head of the Environment Management Department at Kathmandu Metropolitan City Management (KMC) at Teku.
“Also since we lack water, it’s difficult for the attendants to clean the public toilets and keep them in order for public use,” he added.
The KMC had given permission to a private company to build mobile public toilets sometime back. As a result, two green-and-orange mobile toilets can be seen in the busiest area of Kathmandu.
“Mobile toilets are much easier as they don’t occupy permanent spots and can be moved around wherever crowds are,” said Pokharel.
KMC had ordered the said private company to come up with ten mobile toilets, but by now only two are up and running.
“To build one mobile toilet, it can cost anything around 1.2 million Rupees,” informed Pokharel.
Eight years ago, KMC took the initiative to build not only a public toilet but a bathroom, saloon, shower, coffee shop and a small garden around it in two areas – Ratna Park and Chabahil Chowk.
“We thought of building this kind of complex for people who visit the capital city so they can get all related facilities in one public place,” said Pokharel.
The idea was a good start for KMC but, again, due to poor management, these bathhouse-and-toilet combines for general public did not work out; and as a result, they remain in a sad and unwanted condition.
When asked if KMC had any plans to build more public toilets, keeping in mind the Nepal Tourism Year 2011, Pokharel said that he has asked the said private company to quickly build the eight remaining mobile toilets.
Even though the private company has taken the initiative to run the mobile public toilets, which is in reality the government’s responsibility, it has to pay tax to the government. Using these toilets, however, is cheap.
Kabir Shahi, a street vendor in Basantpur, said that life has become much easier after the mobile toilet was stationed where it is today.
“It’s really easy for us, and even though passersby complain of the stink, my shop is a little farther from the toilet, so I’m not complaining,” said Shahi.
Attendants Subish, 16, and 24-year-old Sujit Deula, who look after the two mobile toilets, said that they collect around Rs 1,300 a day and haven’t received any complaints directly from the public.
The Basantpur mobile toilet dumps its waste in the sewer directly connected to it while the NAC one dumps it in Teku.
“We have a spot where we dump the waste from the toilets and we haven’t had any complaints from the locals,” said Deula.
“We don’t know where and how they dump the waste collected from the mobile toilets,” said Pokharel of KMC, but he claimed that the waste could be used to make natural fertilizers. He, however, did not elaborate on it.
Whatever the case, Kathmandu’s mobile public toilets are becoming popular and are used by the public without much complaint, unlike the KMC-run ones.
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