The Media Advocacy Program “Talk of the Town” has been moving forward with continuous Media debate on Safe and Sustainable Sanitation including the status of public toilets in Nepal for the last some episodes. The debate and discussion in local, province and central levels regarding fulfilling the gap of the basic sanitation isn’t sufficient in this present context. The debates and discussions need to be conducted. Talking regarding the city, the major problem is the sanitation. It needs to be addressed. Therefore; Talk of the Town program unit has conducted the studio based “Panel Discussion on Campaign, Investment, Operation and Sustainability of Public Toilets in Nepal”. The discussion has emphasized on the status of public toilets in Nepal, how it has been used and conducted? What is happening in Nepal for its sustainability and what are we doing for it? The panelists of the panel discussion were Dr. Ashok Kumar Byanju (Shrestha), Mayor, Dhulikhel Municipality, Mr. Krishna Prasad Sapkota, Executive Director, Town Development Fund (TDF) and Ms. Sima Rajoriya, Chief of Policy and Advocacy, Water Aid Nepal.
Ms. Sima Rajoriya, Chief of Policy and Advocacy, Water Aid Nepal
Talking about the public sanitation and status of public toilets, its construction, operation and management Ms. Sima Rajoriya, Chief of Policy and Advocacy, Water Aid Nepal, Said; Water Aid Nepal has conducted a research/survey regarding status of Public Toilets in Kathmandu Valley before 4 years ago. The survey concluded with the findings of the availability of a total 242 public toilets inside the valley for more than 3 million people residing here. Still 2.6% of the population don’t have access to public toilets in their households. In available public toilets; most of them are unusable. These toilets must be used by the people who don’t have access to toilets in their households, travelers and tourists too. Therefore, it seems quite inadequate for Kathmandu Valley as per its density. However, the availability and accessibility of public toilets is quite inadequate all over Nepal.
Considering the construction, utilization, operation and sustainability of the public toilets the standards should be emphasized on making public land available, planning should be inclusive, planning process for categorizing and including inclusive people should be clear, developing design of the public toilets, operation and maintenance costs should be allocate in the budget, life long process and business module of the toilets should be clear and then should be clear about the infrastructure of the toilets as per the local context (having sensors, ramps etc). Unfortunately, Nepal doesn’t have an ideal module, design and standards to make public toilets till yet, she added. The government of Nepal mentioned to conduct the National Sanitation Campaign in the Budget Speech, according to the Guideline, have been preparing in coordination with the Ministry of Water Supply (MoWS) by supporting them. But, the Guideline isn’t binding. Therefore, standards should be made as soon as possible. Our efforts continue to make Standards along with the Guideline.
Talking about the measures for collaborating and coordinating with three tiers of governments and development partners to move forward with Sanitation Campaign/ Public Toilets making campaign legal framework (legal document) is a foundation which is becoming. Another is exposure visit where we can learn many things and adopt these learning in the country according to context and resources so a platform for exposure visit should be created and those organizations that have been working on WASH sector can make at least one public toilet in their respective working areas which will be major support for the government. I see the right way forward because we have declared as ODF, many development partners have given many commitments in the Joint Sector Review (JSR) and will be accomplishing these commitments in the near future.
Mr. Krishna Prasad Sapkota, Executive Director, Town Development Fund (TDF)
In the program Mr. Krishna Prasad Sapkota, Executive Director, Town Development Fund (TDF) said, TDF has invested and directly connected with more than 115 towns. 0.5 Million households and 2.5 Million populations are directly benefited through the Water Supply services provided by the TDF. In sanitation, we have invested in some cities like; Birgunj and Janakpur for sewerage management and connected with around one and a half to two lakhs populations through it. It has absolutely less connectivity and benefited the population in comparison to water supply due to our starting phase. Talking about public sanitation, TDF has worked on a massive scale with the local governments of some cities in the past when they didn’t have sufficient resources for it by providing donations. He added, no one municipalities’ has come to TDF with designing and developing projects along with proposals for donation and partnership to construct public toilets till now.
Mr. Krishna Prasad Sapkota has given commitment in the program for providing available loan and donation to municipalities who came to the TDF to approach for loan and investment with designed projects including demand of the public toilets, scopes status of available public land, if public land is not available then, plan to motivate private sector/private land owner, required budget and revenue generation based business plan on behalf of TDF. Talking about the business module and sustainability of the public toilets Mr. Sapkota has said; municipalities can lease out the public toilets adding revenue generating components i.e. coffee shops, restaurants and gift shops and lease out to the private sector for operation, management and maintenance.
The organization should have a perfect investment plan integrating all city sanitation’s projects and have to be clear about what kind of organization they need and how to invest. The resources of all sectors should be integrated for city sanitation and safely managed sanitation. On behalf of TDF he has given commitment to provide support in operation and management of public toilets, will guide to management and sustainability of public toilets and find out the way for resources for constructing, operating, managing and sustainability of public toilets in case municipalities have come to TDF with a designed project.
Dr. Ashok Kumar Byanju (Shrestha), Mayor, Dhulikhel Municipality
Dr. Ashok Kumar Byanju (Shrestha), Mayor, Dhulikhel Municipality said, there are 17 public toilets in Dhulikhel Municipality. Among them 15 toilets have been operating. All toilets aren’t accessible for all facilities under the concept of SMART toilets (Women, Differently abled people friendly, Senior Citizens, Gender and Children friendly) but 5 toilets are smart. Dhulikhel Municipality is a town of ODF declared. Still, 138 toilets remain to be constructed in households migrated from other places. We have made an agreement with the Rotary Club to construct 5 additional toilets having facilities for differently abled people friendly, having a visit center and with the plan to operate in a business module. He stated the problem for building public toilets saying that; municipality is ready to work on constructing public toilets. But, public land is required to construct toilets, which isn’t available and it is very difficult to use authority to get public land from the federal government. During these 5 years we have made 53 parks in the municipality. According to him, there are three major reasons to not accelerate the work of constructing public toilets for public sanitation; those are: i. lack of public land in public places, ii. Weak capacity of the local governments to plan and allocate budget by analyzing need based and demand based projects, iii. Lacking investment to construct public toilets, problems in giving and taking responsibility for operation, iv. Even in not a good management system in available toilets and lack of proper management system incorporating with sewerage management. Now, we have started a proper sewerage management system adopting fecal sludge management (FSM) in our municipality.
Dr. Ashok Kumar Byanju Shrestha said that oral and written commitment isn’t enough for making public toilets. The priority to construct public toilets must be given in the budget, planning and programs of the government. Then, three tiers of governments should be united, invest equally i.e. 33% by federal government, 33% by provincial government and 33% by local government and their collaboration and coordination is equally important. The work of constructing public toilets can move forward smoothly nationally in case of availability of land, finance and proper management planning. Talking about the weakness of political and government’ commitment towards Sanitation Campaign and Safely Managed Sanitation he said, there is contradiction between their tiers of government’ jurisdictions, roles and responsibilities. The Water Supply and Sanitation is a single jurisdiction of the local government and common jurisdiction of three tiers of government. But still, there is a duality and obscurity regarding their roles, responsibilities and authorities. Therefore, this issue should be addressed.
Representing Municipal Association of Nepal (MuAN) along with Dhulikhel Municipality he has given commitment to the way forward with Sanitation Campaign by making 30-50 well managed public toilets in municipality and one project/activity will be done in the municipality one anyone sector in collaboration with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.