This document discusses the need to develop standards for public toilets in developing countries like Bangladesh. A survey of public toilets in Dhaka, Bangladesh found most to be in poor and unusable condition due to lack of management, funding and maintenance. Compared to developed cities, Dhaka lacks public toilet planning, standards, funding and legislation. The document recommends developing a public toilet code, siting toilets based on demand, improving funding and management, and raising public awareness about maintenance to improve sanitation.
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headache after using such unhygienic toilets. They further
complained that most of the time there is no water supply in
these toilets. The users suggested that toilets should be
provided with soap, tissue and good fittings to improve the
service even if they need to pay for such additional facilities
provided the cost is within affordable limits (Fig. 2).
Table 1: Selection of public toilets by category.
Category Name Description
Bus/Railway Station Saidabad Bus Terminal One of the busiest bus terminals of the city where
several hundred buses operate each day
Kamlapur Rail Station The only railway station of the city
Market Place Basundhara Garden City Upscale new shopping mall
New Market Most popular open shopping area of the city
Stadium Mirpur Cricket Stadium Newly built stadium for cricket with a capacity of
35,000 viewers
Mosque Facility Baitul Mokarram National Mosque and the largest of the country
Recreational Facility Mirpur Zoo The largest zoological park of the country
Field survey was conducted at the selected sites and the
opinion and views of the users and the caretakers on different
aspects concerning the facilities were collected through
questionnaire survey. The existing facilities and other relevant
information of the studied locations are presented in Table 2.
Analysis and Findings
It is observed from the study that public toilets in Dhaka city are
in very poor condition. Among the studied locations, only two
toilets (Bashundhara Garden City Complex and Mirpur Cricket
Stadium) are found in good condition and one (Baitul
Mokarrom Mosque) is in moderately good condition. These
toilets are managed by the relevant authorities themselves.
The other toilets are all in an unusable state. These toilets are
leased out by DCC to contractors who are responsible for their
Fig. 1 : User's comment on overall situation (n=38).
management including repair of any damage. However it has
been found that the contractors are often reluctant to carry out
this responsibility. The condition of the facilities deteriorates
further due to lack of monitoring from DCC. The users rated
privately managed public toilets as better than those of DCC
(Table 3).
There is no special provision for physically challenged
persons in the public toilets of Dhaka city. Public toilet facility
for women has also been found to be inadequate indicating
lack of attention to this important aspect of urban facility.
From the users' point of view the main reasons for the poor
condition of public toilets are poor management and
excessive load on each toilet. Only about half the users are
satisfied with the service (Fig. 1). However, the users
complained about vomiting tendency, loss of appetite and Fig. 2: Recommendation of additional service (n=38).
3. Table 2: Existing facilities and other information of studied toilets
Name Saidabad Bus Kamlapur Rail Basundhara New Market Mirpur Cricket Baitul Mokarram Mirpur Zoo
Terminal Station Garden City Stadium
Existing Facility Block: 3 Block: 1 Block: 3 male, 3 Block: 3 male, Block: 7 VIP 21
, Block: 10 male, 3 Block: 3 male, 2
4WC, 2U, 2WB (male) 7WC, 3U, 1WB (male), female per floor 3 female 6WC, normal 2WC, 3U, female 5WC, 6U female4WC, 4U,
3WC, 1WB (female) 2WC (female) 5WC, 5U, 6WB 4U (male block) 2WB (vip block) (male block), 6WC 1WB (male block),
(male block) 5WC, 6 WC (female block) 3WC, 2U, 1WB (female block) 4WC, 1WB
6WB (female block) (normal block) (female block)
Age (years) 2 20 3 53 New > 30 > 30
Charge Rate WC-2, U-1, B-3 WC-2, U-1, B-3 No Charge No Charge No Charge No Charge WC-2, U-1, B-3
(Taka)
Number of 300-350 per block 500-600 per block 10, 000 1, 000 per block 40, 000 in total 8, 000 in total 500per block
users/day
Peak Time 8am-10am, 5am- 6amThursday 3pm-9pmFriday 4pm-6pmFriday During breaks of 11am-2pm Sat-Thu 12pm-4pmFriday
5pm-10pm Friday major international
games
Cleaning 5 times/day 3 times/day 2 times/day 1 time/day Before and after 2 times/day 1time/day
Frequency games
Management DCC leases out to DCC leases out to Owned and Owned by DCC Owned and Owned and Owned by DCC
contractors. contractors. managed and managed by managed by managed by and managed by
by market authority. market authority Bangladesh mosque authority zoo authority
Cricket Board
Observation Toilets are moderately Toilets are filthy and Facilities are neat Hard to find the Fittings are new Neat and clean. Filthy, smelly and
clean but floor is wet, smelly. Water is not and clean. Fittings facility as there is and good. Sliding Moderate condition. dirty. Wet floor and
lighting is inadequate available. Insufficient are good. Floor is no direction to doors are used which insufficient light.
and severe odour lighting and ventilation. dry. Good condition. toilets. Wet floor. saves space.Facilities Floor is below
problem. Bathing Floor is wet. Toilets Poor condition. are inadequate. normal level.
compartments have no are unusable. Good condition. Unusable condition.
door. Overall situation is
poor.
NOTE: WC=Water Closet, U= Urinal, B=Bathing facility, WB=Wash Basin, Taka 70 = US $ 1
Table 3: Comparison of DCC owned and privately managed public toilets from users' perspective
Unusable (%) Inadequate (%) Non-availability of
water (%)
DDC Owned (n=26) 67 73 7362
Private (n=12) 0 8 25
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According to the caretakers most of the users are uneducated not be possible for them to provide and maintain this service
and do not know the proper use of the toilets which adds to the properly. The specific recommendations are as follows:
unhygienic and filthy environment and in some cases cause - Incorporation of a standard code of practice similar to
damage to the facilities. BS6465, NEA or New Zealand Code (BSI, 1996;
In order to determine the most effective measures to improve Greed, 2004; NEA, 2005);
the situation of public toilet facilities in Dhaka, a comparison is - Siting of public toilets should be based on demand and
made between the various aspects of public toilets of Dhaka not on availability of land;
and those in the cities of the developed countries (Table 4).
- Fixing optimum charge that will maximize use and help
From this comparison it is obvious that the issues that need
maintaining the facility;
immediate attention for Dhaka is to formulate a public toilet
strategy including provision of standards and codes, proper - Reforming DCC so that it gets a management structure
legislation, planning and maintenance guidelines and suitable for efficient management of public toilets;
adequate funding. Without these it would not be possible to - Installing a grading system for public toilet facilities at
achieve the goal of Sanitation for All and protect the health of some predefined intervals. Toilets below the standards
the city dwellers. should be upgraded immediately (Sim, 2003);
Table 4: Comparison of public toilet facilities of Dhaka with those in developed countries
Features Dhaka Developed cities
Number of public toilets Very few with respect to the demand City of Adequate and number increases with demand
Public toilet strategy unplanned development. Public toilets are Public toilet planning is an integral part of urban
provided with respect to availability of land spatial planning:
but not demand
Public toilet map No public toilet map Public toilet map is provided for the users and
tourists
Provision and standards No exclusive provisions and standards for Exclusive provisions and standards for public
public toilets toilets
Design, construction and Carried out by private contractors on behalf Carried out by private contractors on behalf of
maintenance work of facilities of Council Council
under city council
Cleaning of facilities under city Not properly monitored by DCC. There is no Public toilets are cleaned at a frequency
council fixed time schedule for monitoring dependent on their locality and usage. The
maintenance contract allows for more frequent
cleaning when required
Maintenance and repair of Time consuming, as complain is made to The contractor is obliged under the contract to
facilities under city council DCC and engineering department takes ensure that remedial works relating to public
long time to act safety or hygiene are done within two hours
from notification or inspection
Funding for installing new Lack of funding A considerable amount of budget is allocated in
facilities under city council installing, upgrading and maintaining public
toilet facilities
Legislation for privately No exclusive legislation act. Strong legislation act with enforcement
maintained public toilet facilities
Recommendations - Formulating suitable legislation for planning,
construction and management of public toilets;
The recommendations that emanate from the study cover all
the major areas of public toilet planning, construction, - Formulating users' guideline for maintenance
management, policy and legislative issues. Most users agree according to WTO guideline (WTO, 2007); and
that unless there is a proper legislative structure and DCC is - Carrying out awareness raising campaigns for
equipped with adequate resource (staff and funding), it would maintenance of public toilets with participation from
owners, cleaners and users.
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Conclusion sanitary appliances”, London: BSI (British Standards
It is found that the condition of the public toilets in Dhaka city is Institute).
far below acceptable standards. The reasons for this include DCC (2007), “Official web site of Dhaka City Corporation”,
absence of public toilet strategy, lack of relevant legal http://www.dhakacity.org/service_public_toilet.html
framework, absence of public awareness in their use and Greed, C. (2004), “A Code of Practice for Public Toilets in
maintenance, inadequate funding, non-availability of land and Britain”, WTO Summit, Beijing, 17-19 Nov, 2004.
inadequate institutional capacity. With the fast increasing
NEA (2005), “Code of Practice on Environmental Health”,
metropolis like Dhaka City and other secondary towns of the
http://app.nea.gov.sg/cms/htdocs/article.asp?pid=1223
country, it is crucial that a standard code for design,
construction, maintenance, management and operation WTO (2007), “Official web site for World Toilet Organization”,
should be developed for Bangladesh. http://www.worldtoilet.org/
References Sim, J (2003), “The Happy Toilet Program A Star Grading
System for Singapore Public Toilets”, WTO Summit, Taipei,
BSI (1996), “BS 6465: Sanitary installations: Part I: Code of
Taiwan, 10-12 Oct, 2003.
practice for the scale of provision, selection and installation of
