In quest of a toilet in Kathmandu

Last weekend, my wife, two sons and I were driving around Kathmandu valley. Suddenly my younger son wanted to pee. We knew there were no public toilets on any street/roads of Kathmandu, so the only viable and sensible option for us was to drive back home all way from Lalitpur – which is more than 20 kilometers away from home – just for that purpose. We had to cancel all other plans for that day. We know that many of our acquaintances will laugh at us about our uptightness. They would say we could have stopped the car anywhere near a bush, a tree or a wall and pee there (which I jokingly suggested to my son, but he did not agree). I even lectured him about the need to be more adventurous in using open toilets on field trips or treks outside Kathmandu. However, he was resolute, and did not budge from the original plan to go home. We do this when any one of us feel like going to the toilet when we are driving. We return home just for that purpose.

When I was young, it was considered macho to be able to pee right on the street, ignoring the passers by. My friends bullied me when I hesitated to pee on the walls or behind the tree. In tarai, it is yet considered natural to do “maidan marne”(which means to use public ground as toilet). Women cover their face with cloth not to be recognized. There is almost social approval, even a subtle appreciation as a symbol of manliness to pee without hesitation on the wall or tree. Don’t-see-don’t-ask is the way to go.

Its not only when we are driving. We had to rush back home every time we feel like going to toilet even when we are in some sophisticated supermarkets such as Blue Bird, Bhatbhateni, Gemini supermarkets that are crowded with hundreds of customers all the time. Most of these supermarkets have either no toilet or just a single toilet located out of customers’ sight, somewhere in building for their staffs only. The owners of these supermarkets clearly do not see the importance of providing adequate toilet facilities to their customers. They definitely do not see providing toilet facilities as their civic responsibility that also adds value to their marketing. It is surprising why it is so hard for them to comprehend that they may loose their sales if the customers had to leave the supermarket whenever they want to go toilet. It is also researchable whether the architects or engineers who designed these building missed to propose at least one toilet on each floor or the owner simply ignored their recommendations.

It is not only with supermarkets, which do not provide toilet facility. Even the retails stores, petrol pumps, bookstore, beauty parlors, tailoring shops, jewelry shops, doctors’ clinics and even the designers’ show room or any other commercial outlets do not have toilet properly allocated and maintained for their customers. For example, try to go toilet at one of the famous publishing house/book shop in Nepal, called Ekta Educational Palace at Lalitpur. They have one toilet, hidden over a stair, which is guarded by a bolted door labeled “No Entry without permission”. When I want to go toilet after hours of stay there to find the book I like, I had to literally sneak into the hidden toilet, as they discourage customers to use it (I think very few customers like me know that there is a toilet in that book store).

Even where there are toilets for name’s sake, in some pathological clinics, medical clinics, hospitals, they are so poorly maintained that people find hard to use. My son once had to come back home from a famous children hospital, Ishan, to get his urine in a small bottle for test, because the toilet in that hospital had neither water nor even toilet paper. It was also stinking very badly.

Toilets facilities in the pubic offices are something not even worth discussing here. We should not expect any public offices to avail toilet facilities to for its visitors. Even if there are, they will hardly be in any usable condition, and will make us sick if we ventured to enter inside. In addition, it should be noted that even Tribhuwan International Airport has very limited toilet facility, far from the international standards. With millions of dollars pouring in, it is unthinkable how all those involved in tourism have not even thought of raising the issue.

What about toilets in sacred place such as Pashupatinath and Boundhanath Temples? They aren’t any. You have the whole Bagmati river to use as toilet, from which, we all take holy water at least once after our death when our bodies are being cremated.

So considering the above facts, it is worth knowing what to do in Kathmandu, if you feel like peeing in the middle of the road. You will have the following options.

To wet your pant while seeking a toilet that is not there.

1. To show your macho character and pee around the trunk of tree or on any wall on the street while other passerby pretend not to see (except those driver of cars driving during night when the light falls right where you avoid)
2. To return home or wherever you live to pee in your own bathroom.

Let me warn you that the second option would be the most common and sane in Nepal. If you have not done it before, you would never know the excitement of peeing behind the tree, making bets on who can make a longest stream. If a girlfriend accompanies a boy, she will pretend not seeing him pee on the wall. As a result, you will see many artistic images on the walls that also give most strong smell. Only few people with obsessive-compulsive syndrome return all way long to their house just to pee a few CCs of urine. An example of the obsessive-compulsive behavior is no other than my sister-in-law who avoided traveling out of Kathmandu until the age of 45, due to fear that she has to use open toilet during her road travel. Once I jokingly had to advise her to use baby’s dipper to avoid soiling her clothes if she decided to do road travel.

Sometimes, it hard to believe how urban Kathmandu, with all its fashionable inhabitants, beauty contestants, fashion designers, fashionable pediatrician, affluent and civilized people, intellectuals, Harvard- and Oxford-educated elites and people like us have been ignoring the very basic of civilization of having toilet facilities in our city. Sometimes it sounds useless to talk about democracy and human rights when citizens do not have even a toilet to pee.

Last time when one of my entrepreneur friends asked me what new idea I can give, I told him of marketing toilet services in major towns and city areas. Kathmandu can have at least more than 100 pay toilets in strategic places, which can fetch good profit and many employments for the unemployed. Marketing toilet would be a profitable business both for public or private entrepreneurs. Instead of going home all way long, people would pay some good amount for getting a clean toilet with water. The government should make it mandatory for any public and private commercial outlets to provide toilet facilities.

Published in the Telegraph Wednesday, September 14, 2005