Public toilets rare in Tangerang

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.