N55                World Toilet Day (Part 2 )

Restaurants and food shops are not doing enough concerning toilets. This is due not only to management but also to people who use them. Some installed western type of toilets and people without knowledge get on them with slippers and thus damage and make them dirty. I heard from someone that the toilets of Junction Square put instructions on the wall about how to use this kind of toilets. Only this kind of education will suit our country.

    

  Another thing is that they don’t usually keep pegs in toilets. People who go around take some kinds  of bags  with them. If there are no pegs where can they hang their bags. There are always pegs in toilets of developed countries. But some places in Myanmar are starting to do so now.

     

Our country is one place tourists like to visit now . The number of tourists visiting Myanmar is increasing dramatically during these few years. Also business people are flocking to Myanmar to look for opportunities . Beside hotel rooms we should prepare all facilities for these people. Must visit places for tourists in Myanmar included Yangon, Bagan, Inlay etc.

When I visited Nyaungshwe not long ago I noticed it hasn’t changed much in spite of many foreign visitors. We went into a restaurant and asked to use toilets and they replied that they don’t keep one . But thank God that one worker escorted us to a nearby flat which has an ordinary lavatory.

    

   The next time we went into a Chinese restaurant where we heard that their hsi kyet is good. To go to the toilets we had to pass the blazing fireplace through a wet floor and then outside to the common dark toilets. I want very much to give them some advice to keep good clean toilets where visitors can  use because many people including tourists are coming to Nyaungshwe , so that it will not shame us and at the same time be a kind of help to visitors. But I couldn’t manage to do so.

      

In big cities and towns of developed countries toilets can be found everywhere. Even a small restaurant has one or even two toilets. Usable and clean toilets are at every train or bus station. When we have relieved ourselves after walking  around , eating, shopping and such things we are very much at ease. Toilets are a necessity if not a luxury.

     

   It is important for every human being to have access to good clean toilets. They are for improving the health and well being of all people.So everybody should work together to achieve  this  goal of  WORLD TOILET DAY.

 N54                 World Toilet Day

I have been practicing myself not to be surprised , not to be shocked at anything I see, I hear, at things happening in the world, in our country or around me, because anything can happen at any moment.

  

   But an article I read in a newspaper today made me a little surprised and at the same time somewhat pleased.

   

  It was UNSG’s message on World Toilet Day 19 November 2013. So they have designated a day called WTD and it said this first official observance by UN is an opportunity to highlight that important topic.I agree with that. It really is important and it concerns our people who (most of them ) do not take it seriously.

UNSG stated in his message about how people are affected by poor sanitation and hygiene , so that they fall ill with diarrhea,and suffer long time illness. It costs developing nations around 260 billion a year which is 1.5% of their GDP.On the other hand every $ invested can bring a 5 fold return by keeping people healthy and productive.

He said one billion people practice open defecation. Progress for action on sanitation has been too little and too slow and so he launched a Call to Action on Sanitation this year to end open defecation by 2025 and  to build Sanitation and Water for All .He also urged to work together to improve the health and well being of 1/3 of the human family which is the goal of World Toilet Day.

   

As I have stated our country people do not care much about sanitation. And in some rural areas people are still practicing open defecation. A famous author wrote in her book that there are no toilets in her village and so I cannot help wondering if she also does like other villagers when she goes to her village and why doesn’t she give some education and advice to her villagers to build some toilets. But it  is not  only in some villages of Anyar that practice open defecation but also in some other parts of Myanmar as well. In our Shan State people used flowing streams and creeks with clear, clean water as their toilets and thus polluted them and become unfit for other uses.

      

This is one disadvantage about toilets in Myanmar. No toilets at all or very poor ones. The other fact I want to write is about cleanliness and tidiness of cities and town’s toilets and also the lack of them.

    

   I have seen many places of the world through TVs and have been to some Eastern countries myself. I admire places which are neat and clean and want my country to be like them. But many things in our country are not satisfactory due  to mismanagement and slow progress.

  

   Among them public toilets are at the top. Markets, restaurants, government facilities cannot manage their toilets well. Just for example the toilets of Bogyoke Market, which many people including tourists are using are always with wet floor and some are out of order and lack cleanliness. We are very much far behind our neighbours like Thailand and Singapore in everything including toilets.

to be continued......