Welfare organisation announces public toilets project in Karachi

The Salman Sufi Foundation (SSF), which has undertaken to train 10,000 women across the province in driving motorcycles, has now announced its another project to help women in the public places by introducing portable toilets for them.

The SSF is soon going to establish a pilot portable toilet project, ‘Saaf Bath’, from Karachi, said SSF founder Salman Sufi as he spoke with The News on Monday. “The core of our foundation is women empowerment through practical changes on the ground. When we are trying to get the employment or [making efforts for their] mobility, we are also making sure when they come out, we provide them facilities like bathrooms and other basic necessities.”

For this purpose, he shared that the foundation had sent a letter to Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani for his approval to install public toilets in four areas of the city – Tariq Road, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Lucky Star and Sea View.

He said once the permission was granted, the SSF would carry out a survey in these areas and identify locations based on footfalls. “Our requirement is sanitation provision and electric connections at the locations,” he added.

According to their plan, 20-foot containers would be installed at the four locations, each of which would have five toilets, two for men and three for women with separate entrances. They also plan to include a toilet for people with disabilities as well.

As for the SSF’s agreement with the Sindh government, Sufi shared that Sindh Women Development Minister Shehla Raza and Adviser to the Chief Minister on Law Murtaza Wahab were on board. “We have volunteered our services to the Sindh government. Once NOC [no objection certificate] is granted to us, we will install the public toilets on our own and will also manage them,” he said.

The foundation plans to deploy trained sanitation technicians who would work in two shifts under a supervisor. “We also have a manual for the cleanliness of the toilets with us,” Sufi said, adding that they would also ensure continuous supply of hand sanitizers and water at the toilets.

Sufi said Senator Mushahid Hussain, who is also part of the committee on climate change, had been part of the project and he would arrange a meeting of the foundation with senators in this regard and would also play his role in mobilising the federal government.

The project is primarily targeted to benefit pedestrians, especially women, who do not have access to clean or safe public toilets in Pakistan. Gradually, Sufi said, the foundation would install such toilets in Lahore and other areas of Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkwa and Balochistan as well. This is in line with the foundation’s plan of initiating an overall health and sanitation campaign made exclusively for women.

He said there was a huge sanitation crisis in Pakistan when it came to women as the public hygiene systems in Pakistan ignored menstrual hygiene and emergency requirements for women.

The country, according to Sufi, had been facing a growing issue of inaccessibility to clean water, health and sanitation. According to the World Health Organisation, Pakistan is the third largest country where over 43 million people defecate publicly. According to a report of the World Bank, only 48 per cent of the population of Pakistan has access to improved sanitation. It is also the sixth Sustainable Development Goal to target the issue of health and sanitation.

Just the city of Lahore is home to millions of people and has only 21 public bathrooms. The current state of our public sanitation is deplorable as most of these public toilets are in a state of chronic decay. Lack of proper sanitation facilities causes constipation, stool withholding behaviours in growing children and stunting, which results in chronic malnutrition.