Public toilets rare in Tangerang

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

Looking for a public toilet in Tangerang municipality? Ask a local resident for directions and he or she is likely to direct you to the nearest empty plot of land or river.

It is an unfortunate truth that public facilities are rare in the fast-growing industrial region of Tangerang, which is home to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, the main gateway to the country.

The Tangerang Municipal Health Agency surveyed 14 districts in the municipality and found that 20 percent of the 1.4 million residents did not have toilets in their homes and were forced to use empty land or rivers.

Budi Sabarudin, 32, a resident of Kedaung Wetan subdistrict, Neglasari district, about 500 meters from the airport, uses the irrigation canal that runs in front of his house as a toilet.

The canal serves as a toilet for the hundreds of families that live near the canal, which flows to the Cisadane River.

Numerous semipermanent shacks have been built over the canal to give residents' privacy.

"We do not have enough space in our home for a toilet," Budi told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Bintang Terang, 28, a resident of Mekarsari subdistrict, Benda district, said he and his family used a nearby empty plot of land when they needed to use the toilet.

"It is more practical and it is free ... For daily washing and bathing we use a public toilet about 300 meters from our house and we have to pay for that," said the urban farmer who grows vegetables on an idle piece of land near the airport.

According to the head of the environmental sanitation unit at the health agency, Ade Komarudin, the 280,000 residents without toilets in their homes were concentrated mainly in Pinang district, where Tangerang Mayor Wahidin Halim comes from, and Neglasari and Benda districts.

"Their habit of defecating on vacant land and in the river is not just because they cannot build toilets in their homes. It is also related to their behavior and the local culture, and therefore we need to intervene," he said.

Ade said the municipal health agency planned to build some 22,000 public toilets in the three districts.

"Otherwise, the environment will only suffer from the actions of the residents," he said.

The administration also plans to install mobile toilets along the polluted Cisadane River. The dirty water in the river has been blamed for a diarrhea outbreak that has killed dozens of residents since June.