LAHORE: The government has decided to enhance the number of public toilets to 108 from 25 in one year.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a recent visit to Lahore expressed concern over the shortage of public toilets and tasked the Lahore commissioner with increasing their number to facilitate the people.

An official said that in 2017, the divisional administration started the construction of 25 public toilets and completed the task by May 2018. The official, requesting anonymity, said two of the 12 modern toilets could not be made functional. He said during a meeting, Commissioner retired Captain Muhammad Usman was informed by the MCL representatives that the corporation planned to construct 30 more toilets besides three temporary ones called ‘container toilets’. However, the participants said that city needed 200 public toilets, so the departments should at least take the number from 25 to 108, including 33 planned by the MCL.

The commissioner directed the MCL to start identifying suitable places for toilets.

It may be mentioned the divisional administration in May 2018 had asked the MCL to outsource the operational control of the then newly-built public toilets to any eligible private company. However, most of them could not be outsourced or made functional after the change of the government.

A multinational company had shown interest in running the public toilets and the then administration had held some meetings in 2018 with its representatives to discuss the outsourcing mechanism. The private company was to ensure the provision of toiletries like soap/hand wash, comb, toilet papers, tissue papers, towelettes, and air freshener besides managing the cleanliness of the units.

“The number of functional public toilets in the city should be 58 in the next three months,” the commissioner said.

The commissioner was informed that the number of existing public toilets in the city was 25 and some of them were non-functional. He learned the MCL had identified 30 new locations for public toilets.

“A functional and sustainable system must be in place for the cleanliness and operations of public toilets. Moreover, the toilets must be highly hygienic in terms of cleanliness and quality of facilities,” the commissioner said.

Published in Dawn,May 7th, 2022