Bulawayo hit by toilets shortage

THE Bulawayo City Council is faced with a public toilet crisis, amid revelations that out of a total of 97 toilets, 44 are not functioning after being vandalised by the public.

Health services director Dr Zanele Hwalima said while it was their wish to have all 97 toilets functioning for the convenience of the public, they had to close them after the public either stole chambers or demolished part of the infrastructure.

"It is unfortunate that we can't get all our public toilets to be functioning due to the problem of vandalism. You find that out of 97, 44 are not working because of vandalism. Some have gone for years without functioning as we are looking for resources to resuscitate them.

"As a local authority we do our part but we feel a lot still has to be done. Keeping the toilets clean boils down to members of the public themselves, noting that the more we neglect these toilets then there is a sharp increase in open defecation which goes on to have serious health consequences," said Dr Hwalima.

Meanwhile, investigations revealed that most major buildings in the city do not have publicly accessible toilet facilities. Even the local authority's Tower Block, Revenue Hall and the City Hall do not have any toilets that are accessible to the public. At the Tower Block the council locked the public toilets a number of years ago.