By: Rama Luintel

The mobile toilets that failed in Kathmandu a decade ago is being planned to be continued again. Kathmandu Municipality is planning to construct mobile toilets in 50 different locations of the municipality area in collaboration with private sector. KMC has stated that these mobile toilets will solve the problem of lack of public toilets in the municipality. The municipality has already called for the proposal of constructing mobile toilet.

According to Dinesh Thapaliya, the executive officer of KMC, the municipality will provide necessary land for the toilets in coordination of the Department of Roads. He added that urgent need of public toilets in the municipality is the reason behind the concept of mobile toilets. An agreement was made among the stakeholders including the KMC, the Department of Roads and traffic police for construction of mobile toilets in the municipality a year ago. 

The Solid Waste Management and Resource Mobilization Centre had operated mobile toilets in Kathmandu Durbar Square and some other public places more than a decade ago. Engineer of the centre Ashok Rai states problems like scarcity of water, faulty toilet structure and difficulty in disposing the toilet waste properly as the main reasons for failure of the toilets after 2 years of operation. He added that negative feeling of people towards toilets will cause a problem of placing them though it is movable. 

The KMC has planned to operate the toilets mainly in busy public places and in the places of activities like mass gathering, festivals and public meetings. "The busy areas like Ratnapark, Basantapur, Newroad, Putalisadak have been identified as the priority areas for the toilets", said Thapaliya.

Source: Annapurna Post, August 18, 2008