Dear Editor,
IN cities all over the world, public restrooms can be found near places of entertainment,near public transportation (bus terminals), near shopping centres in parks and playfields, close to public buildings and at large outdoor events etc.
In Georgetown it is a whole different story. There is not an adequate number of toilets resulting in many persons urinating and defecating in the open – in fields, bushes, or bodies of water – putting themselves, but more disturbingly  children, in danger of deadly faecal-oral diseases like diarrhoea.
When nature calls a visitor or shopper in downtown Georgetown, how quickly can he or she answer? How quickly can they do so legally? Most persons are forced to let loose—that is to say, urinate in public. However, there is always a City Constable waiting to harass such persons as they see it as an opportunity for demanding a bribe.
Open urination,particularly by girls and women,is a challenge to their dignity, and is also a safety issue as they quite often wait until dark to relieve themselves, putting themselves in danger of attack. But what is the Georgetown City Council doing about it? They are glibly spending millions of dollars a month to rent a few portable toilets from private contractors, whilst the few permanent facilities owned by the Council have also been contracted out to private individuals which are so badly managed that the public prefers not to use them.
This just shows how lazy and corrupt the administration of the Council is. With a staff strength of close to a thousand employees,many of whom are sanitation workers, they prefer to divest themselves of the responsibility of managing and maintaining these sanitary facilities, opting instead to give it to private individuals and contractors from whom they could get fringe benefits such as having some of these portable toilets placed at their residences for their security and other staff.
If the officials at City Hall had any common sense and integrity they would have used the millions wasted each month on renting portable toilets to construct public toilets around the city,consisting of small concrete buildings containing one or more toilets (and possibly also urinals) which would be available for use by the general public,eliminating the common practise of urinating in public. These facilities should be accessible to people with disabilities.
If the Council however prefers to deploy portable restrooms which are conversely better suited for camping, outdoor activities, wedding events, construction and large outdoor special events,then they should purchase their own rather than continue renting,which would save tens of millions a year, but then again who at City Hall cares about the squander mania  of the rates paid by property owners?
Regards
Modi Sankar