KARACHI, Jan 12: Public toilets, one of the most essential facilities at public places, has so far failed to draw the attention of successive governments, including the local governments in Karachi.

Such a facility is even more essential for women, whose number at work places, shopping centres and other such public places continues to soar in this metropolis. However, like the past administrations of the city, the City District Government and the City Council have so far paid no attention to this pressing issue.

One can hardly find a neat and clean wash room or toilet at shopping centre, recreation park, office plaza, etc. Women, more particular in cleanliness than men, face a serious problem while outdoors.

Though a very limited inter-cities bus stops have toilet facility, there has been no concept of such a facility at bus stops in the city.

In government offices, toilets did exist in most cases but a few of such offices have separate women toilets. Private builders seem to have no consideration of the facility due to which a large number of women — working women, shoppers and visitors — face intolerable situation.

Even the City Government Secretariat at Civic Centre, frequented by hundreds of people, quite a good number of them women, lacked the women toilets or rest rooms.

Similar is the case of the old KMC building which has now been converted into the Naib Nazim Secretariat. It may be mentioned here that a special 33 per cent quota for women has been allocated for the District Councils. In her first speech at the Sindh Assembly, Dr Saeeda Malik had pointed out that under the present system, 17 per cent quota of total strength of the provincial assembly was for women but there was no separate rest room or wash room for the women MPAs.

There are thousands of places in the city where people relieve themselves on footpaths, play grounds, abandoned plots, bushes etc. ignoring all the ethical and other norms and values, thus creating a worst sort of environmental pollution.

Not only the issue has ever been taken up at any level, provision of toilet facilities at beaches, amusement parks and various other under-construction development schemes has never been considered an important matter.

The City Government, like many administrations of the past, has been working hard for the development of the beach from Sandspit to Cape Monze frequented by no less than 50,000 people on holidays during summers. However, except for the Paradise Point, all other spots have no toilet facility either built or planned to be built.

It may be recalled that the Provincial Ombudsman, Justice (r) Haziq-ul-Khairi, had taken a suo motu notice of the non-availability of public wash rooms and toilets in the major cities of Sindh citing great hardships and inconvenience to people.

The Ombudsman had issued notices to the then administrator of the KMC Brig (r) Abdul Haq who responded with a pledge to raise 100 public toilets in Karachi. The municipalities of Hyderabad and Sukkur had also made similar commitments.—PPI