35,663 families without bathrooms

35,663 families without bathrooms

TANGERANG: The Tangerang municipal resettlement and regional
infrastructure agency disclosed on Tuesday that 35,663 families
living in 20 slums across the municipality relieve themselves on
open land as they do not have bathrooms.

"The residents' habit of going to the toilet on open land is
having a bad environmental impact," the agency's technical
planning chief Suwardjono told reporters.

He said a recent survey conducted by the agency showed that
besides having low awareness of sanitation, most of the families
could not afford to build their own bathrooms.

More than half of the poor families need to learn how to use a
toilet. "Changing their habits to use a toilet is a process," he
added. --JP