For residents of Kathmandu Valley, every long excursion outside their homes necessitates a trip to the bathroom. In case nature calls while on the streets of Kathmandu, the choices are either a visit to some rank, festering, ammonia-filled, tear-inducing public toilet or the bushes. However, often, even these toilets are few and far between.Besides the public transport mayhem, the shortage of public toilet has become the single biggest problem for commuters in the capital Kathmandu.A recent study conducted by the Green Youth Network, an informal network of environmental science students, on eleven different public restrooms (excluding mall and mobile restrooms), show 90% of public rest rooms operated under the KMC are cleaned three times a day. The general public consistently lists “no proper sanitation measures used in the public lavatory” among its top concerns. But, according to research, 18% of public rest rooms in the Valley do not have a water supply and 55% use tainted water. Only 45% provide soap. Despite the government’s claim to meet universal sanitation targets by 2017, 14 million people are still deprived of basic sanitation facilities in Nepal. Of the 3,915 VDCs, around 500 have been declared Open Defecation Free zones. Though there has been progress, Nepal is unlikely to meet its sanitation targets by 2017 if serious measures are not taken, especially in urban areas.
