Delroy ChuckDelroy Chuck
THROUGHOUT THE country, far away from home, when one hears nature's call, it soon becomes an emergency. For residents and tourists alike, it is a challenging experience to find decent toilet facilities to answer a basic need the disposal of human waste. When Mayor Desmond McKenzie lambasted citizens, especially males, for urinating in public, he was much applauded, and there is general agreement that it is a private matter within the confines of a sanitary convenience but where are these sanitary conveniences?
Jamaica needs to take stock of how we serve the public, the ordinary citizen, the favoured customer or unsuspecting visitors. The public sanitary conveniences are disgraceful, mostly unfit for human use and unseemly to any eye or nose. In and around marketplaces, there are toilets that are never properly maintained and are actually health hazards. Buildings catering to the public may have sanitary conveniences but they are never adequate and readily available for employees and customers, as they are usually under lock and key.
Generally, toilets in business places and outlets that attract members of the public are in deplorable and unsanitary condition.
ORDERING OURSELVES
We need to put these basic conveniences in order before we can say we are truly ready to serve the public or cater to visitors. I would certainly hope we could attract five or 10 million tourists to our country annually, many of whom will want to travel around the island. But, will we be ready for that influx?
When families leave Kingston to travel to the country, or vice versa, get held up in traffic, and need to use a sanitary convenience, where can one find somewhere decent between Kingston and Ocho Rios, or May Pen and Kingston, etc.?
I think it is time the relevant government agencies insist that every public or commercial building provides decent, attractive and available toilets. I sometimes wonder what has happened to the public health authorities, which, negligently, allow business places to serve the public in the most unpardonable conditions. Interestingly, in last Friday's Gleaner, on page B8, in an interesting news item 'Toilet Maps' published, a resourceful Singapore citizen, president of the Restroom Association of Singapore, has decided to publish toilet maps to indicate "the cleanest and best-equipped restrooms for the benefit of tourists and shoppers." The city-state is publishing these maps to pinpoint the "500 cleanest public toilets in its drive to wipe dirty lavatories off the face of the island." In fact, retail operators are being encouraged to raise the standards of toilets in the country as a competitive tool, as "Shopping centres with well-facilitated loos will win the trust of shoppers." I agree.
If our gas stations, bars and other commercial entities could only discern that catering to the needs, the natural needs, of customers can attract business, then word of mouth alone will ensure survival and improvement of the business.
PROMPT ACTION
I do not believe, however, we should leave it to the discretion of owners and operators of business outlets. We should insist that they have clean and usable sanitary conveniences and a process of inspection by the health authorities should start promptly. It does not take a great fortune to equip a bathroom attractively. I believe we should demand of the multinational oil companies Texaco, Esso, Shell, etc. that every single gas station that bears their logo has adequate and hygienic toilet facilities, as a part of its continuing franchise and service to the public.
To be fair, the fast food outlets - Kentucky Chicken, Burger King, McDonalds, Juici Patties, etc. have wonderful toilet facilities, which are well maintained and at a high standard. In fact, these fast food outlets are setting standards that should be emulated around the country and partly explain why they are doing so well.
Next, Parish Councils and licensing authorities should withdraw licences or refuse to licence bars and other public facilities that fail to offer improved toilet facilities. If we insist that persons who spit or urinate in public should be prosecuted then we must first insist and ensure that there are alternative facilities for those people to use.
I do not think we are at the stage where, like Singapore, we can start to rate toilets with the five-star system used for hotels but we must insist on certain minimum standards that respect the dignity and sensitivity of human beings, whether they are tourists or residents. Jamaica is a small place - it should not be an emergency when one hears nature's call.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by e-mail at Delchuck@hotmail.com.
