Trekking towards civilisation
This burgeoning megalopolis of over 10 million is difficult to manage that no one will disagree. What is however making it unnecessarily more unbearable and unclean is the absence of public toilets at strategic places. The result is outdoor defecating, usually at predawn, and street-side urinating throughout the day. Needless to say the womenfolk are most disadvantaged due to the prevailing situation. Here is one instance where the offender is blameless.
City stench has become an acceptable norm throughout the country, whereas the severe unhygienic condition is posing serious health hazards to the urban population. One would imagine that the cost of providing public toilets would be infinitesimal against the price paid for in human sufferings, disease, and illness.
The few apologetic public facilities that the Dhaka City Corporation has intermittently punctuated the capital city with are at best an eyesore, and most have made the immediate environ a cesspit that is a rude slap on civilization. Alarmed by the gravity of the matter (pun not intended), the Asian Development Bank stepped in to finance a few basic public conveniences in Dhaka. It only went to corroborate that we are incapable of taking care of our own effluent.
Today we present the first of a two-part series on a research on Dhaka city's public toilets undertaken by the Centre for Urban Studies (CUS) and WaterAid in Bangladesh. Let me take this opportunity to express gratitude to the authors and the research team on behalf of our urban population for not only undertaking a subject of great importance but for their resolve as individuals and of their respective institutions to make public toilets work. This has to be the beginning of our trek towards civilisation.