Nairobi, 9th September 2024
The County Subsector of Water and Sanitation Services hosted a meeting with City’s public toilet operators to address issues of concern such as status of hygiene and sanitation, increase of user charge fee and the renewal of operations contract.
Green Nairobi Executive Committee Member Ms. Maureen Njeri said there was a need to regularize public toilets management for better services. She added that the critical issue is to improve on the hygiene of the toilets and ensure that they are properly managed.
Ms. Njeri announced that plans were underway to put up more public toilet facilities and upgrade the existing ones to better serve the City’s population.
” In the next couple of weeks, we are going to form a team comprising of urban planning, public health and partners to carry out an assessment of the current position of the toilets so that we come up with expansion plan of the of toilet facilities in town. We ask for your utmost support and cooperation in this exercise.” She stated.
She warned those operators using the facilities for the purposes not intended like storing food trolleys to desist as this was unhygienic.
Ms. Njeri promised that all concerns raised during the meeting such as need for reliable water, current increase of private toilets without County permits, renovation of existing toilets and construction of new ones will be looked into in an endeavor to maintaining high standards of public hygiene and ensure reliable sanitation services for the people of Nairobi.
The public toilet operators were informed of the planned contract renewal between them and Nairobi City County, since the one in place had already expired. This is meant to ensure continuity of services with the experienced operators who are familiar with the facilities.
Mr. Omoke, the County Chief Officer for Water and Sanitation Services explained to the operators that a transparent tendering process will be carried out for the renewal process.
The Water Chief Officer stressed the need for proper standard operation procedures, adding that going forward it will be necessary for each and every toilet to have its own water and electricity meters.
During the deliberations, the operators attributed the recent increase of the toilet charge fees to the vandalism resulting from the recent protest where equipment were damaged, the high cost of living and competition from increased private toilets facilities in some buildings in town.
They however reported that they had resumed the standard amount of 10 shillings after discussions with the County Water and Sanitation Services Subsector.
Hon. Maurice Ochieng, the Chairman County Assembly Health Committee who was also present, said the current hygiene status of the public toilets needed improvement and called out on operators using the public toilet as storage facilities.
Also present in the meeting were; County Director Water and Sanitation Mr. Mario Kainga, Mr. Kipsang Kosgei, Director Enforcement, Ms. Elizabeth Waithera, Assistant Director Protocol and other Water and Sanitation Subsector Staff.
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