Caught short: The sad plight of women with no restrooms
13 October 2012
KELA KAPKORA SIL BOLKIN
HAVEN’T YOU REALISED that Port Moresby is the only city in the world that doesn’t have proper restrooms for the public?
The available restrooms throughout the city have crumbled to the blueprint of wear and tear.
There are no doors on the cubicles, the floors are infested with faeces, maggots, betel nut sputum and phlegm and there are bullet holes in the walls enough to see through.
There is one more burden - and that is the filthy restroom lord who will demand a tax for using this disgusting hut. If you don’t pay or don’t pay enough, you risk your neck especially if you belong to one of the vulnerable ethnic groups - let alone being a woman.
The five major markets maintained by the National Capital District Commission do not have appropriate clean and ventilated rest rooms.
Mothers and sisters who travel in to the big city down the Magi and Hiri Highways to sell their market produce take almost five to six hours to get to Port Moresby’s markets.
They then face the challenge of acquiring space to sell their produce alongside mothers and sisters from the city settlements.
If nature calls in that melee, the mothers and sisters have to pay K1 for a tissue, K1 for water and sadly have yet to sell their produce to make those amounts. As a result, they venture out to the nearest shrub, tree or drain only to meet a bigger doom.
The menfolk easily used the contours and shrubs to answer calls of nature. Our mothers and sisters have to take more of a risk.
The thugs are well aware of the demands for contours and shrubs and they sit and watch like eagles to prey on any females that walk off the road seeking redress from nature’s call.
Furthermore, the Papuan black snakes also pose a threat to our mothers and sisters when they trespass seeking a sanctuary for nature’s call.
Besides, when there are no rest rooms and when the masses shit and pollute the environment, it is an absolute health and hygiene concern.
Of course, the masses feed their hungry stomachs with buttered scones, flower balls, lamb flaps and kaukau all washed down the blockade in the oesophagus with water from recycled one litre Coca-Cola containers sold on open markets along the roads.
The hungry consumer is often in for a big bout of diarrhoea and perhaps typhoid immediately after the meal. The chain reaction is plainly the congestion of the sickness care system of our clinics and hospitals.
Jackson’s Airport is the only airport in the world that does not have a big rest room outside the terminal.
In PNG, the extended family relationship is very strong and therefore the whole clan goes to the airport to farewell relatives who depart for overseas or within PNG. Unfortunately, at the airport, the person with the ticket is led into the terminal while the other clan members squat outside for hours to farewell even the plane that their relative is boarding.
But when nature calls, what do they do? They crawl over to the shrubs opposite Erima and answer that call.
The stench veering out of that corner in the hot sun is testimony to the effect of the blunder by the National Airports Corporation and the National Capital District Commission in not providing a restroom for the masses that run to the airport to see off their loved ones.
The great Vision City Mall charges K1 for anybody who uses its restrooms. But wait, this is a mall and it should provide that service under corporate social responsibility.
Decent people should be employed to clean, mop and air freshen the cubicles and even provide shower rooms for mothers and babies.
But Water Front Mall has no rest rooms.
The many Stop and Shop supermarkets in Port Moresby have not provided any restrooms for customers. Their rivals like Tango, TST, Papindo, Brian Bell and the commercial banks do not provide restrooms. Only Kenmighty Chicken, Big Rooster and Food World outlets provide free rest rooms for their customers.
If you do a quick survey you can confirm that many of our mother and sisters do not eat and drink much when they go out of the comfort of their homes to shopping centres, banks or airport.
Restrooms should be part of any public arena, whether grocery shops, offices, markets, sporting fields, theatres, banks and so forth as long as the growing public moves around and about those.
Holding urine for long periods can result in urinary tract infections and it can affect the health and social well being of a person. For some older people the lack of restrooms can limit social activities and lead to a reduction in quality of life.
We, therefore, as usual beseech the National Capital District Commission, the National Airports Corporation, the Building Inspection Board and the corporate organisations to give some dignity to our mothers and sisters by providing these important basic services and staffing them with properly educated personnel.
That's true Sil. Its about time PNG national government and the responsible agencies must solve this disgusting situation in all the cities in the country.
I hope elected MPs and bureaucrats may have seen very basic services like this provided in countries they visit on so-called business trips.
Lacking very basic services like this is a shame in the eyes of the international community. Our elected MPs are opening their mouths wide but nothing happens on the ground. Big shame!
Posted by: Joe Wasia | 14 October 2012 at 03:43 PM
The issue of public toilets needs serious attention. All the town authorities in PNG need to look into this.
To the town councils & authorities, if you can allow so many haus kai & food outlet businesses in your towns, then you must also build many public amenities like toilets. otherwise you will continue to get the problems of food poisoning, diarrhoea, tyhpoid and cholera among others.
There's also the issue of cleanliness and rubbish collection. Port Moresby as the capital is disgracefully dirty and filthy! It just goes to reflect the bad attitude of the people as well as the authorities.
Many years ago they used to have spot fines for throwing rubbish or spitting buai in many towns, but now a days this is not happening. this measures may need to be reintroduced again until people change their ways even if it means another 5 years of spot fines.
Posted by: Frank K Daosak | 14 October 2012 at 04:13 AM
Many shops, hotels and offices in Moresby lock their bathrooms and you have to ask for a key, and embarrassingly, toilet paper, if you need to go.
The situation described by Sil is a major contributor to disease and surely helped lead to recent cholera and dysentery outbreaks.
Something for the good Powes Parkop to address?
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 13 October 2012 at 09:18 AM
When I taught in PNG (1971-1983) I worked with my female students to help the Women's Clubs movement. There were good Women's Clubs all over PNG in those times, in the villages and the towns. What has happened to them?
In Australia a major women's club is the Country Woman's Association (CWA). You'll find them throughout all the country towns and cities and in various parts of the bigger capital cities. They provide many good rest rooms.
When I was in PNG the CWA had built places in many of the PNG towns where women could use toilets, make a cup of tea etc and also stay while moving from one government house in one district to another government house in another district.
The one on Wewak hill I, and the Matron of the Nursing School at Wewak Hospital, also used for training the local women and girls in public speaking.
In my nearby suburb in Sydney, Eastwood, my aunty, the local president of the CWA for many years, led the CWA to build a lovely Ladies' Rest Rooms in the local park.
Later it was knocked down and incorporated in a lovely big Library. But the CWA still run a section of this building, especially for the use of ladies down shopping in Eastwood.
I can see that the ladies who are coming to sell their goods at the Port Moresby markets need to unite and get themselves organised into a club e.g. The PNG Women's Association.
They then need to raise the money to build decent centres where they can have toilets, change rooms, places to look after their babies, a place to make themselves a drink etc. and these need to be located near all the markets and major shopping centres in Port Moresby. They will need to roster themselves to keep the place clean and tidy.
Come on PNG girls, get yourselves organised! You can do it! Maybe Dame Carol could help get you started!
Posted by: Mrs Barbara Short | 13 October 2012 at 09:13 AM
Thanks for this straight to the point very truthful piece.
Just to say that I have on a number of occasions used the restrooms at Brian Bell (both at the Plaza and at the Home Centre).
The restrooms are clean and free for customers and, if my memory serves me right, I think they even have a baby changing unit.
Posted by: Fiona Hukula | 13 October 2012 at 06:23 AM