More public bathroom facilities needed, says MP

One lawmaker has called for more strategic placement of toilet facilities across the island, as she raised alarm that some people were forced to relieve themselves in bushes because there was nowhere else to go.

St Philip North MP Dr Sonia Browne made the call in the Lower House on Tuesday, singling out certain categories of workers whom she said were most affected.

She said it was especially a concern for females.

“There needs to be a strategic positioning of bathrooms along the island. I speak to female bus drivers, tour operators, people who work for sanitation services…. They are forced to pull over and go in the bush,” Dr Browne said, while speaking on a resolution for the vesting of 9.296 hectares of land on which the old Glendairy Prison sits, to the Barbados Tourism Investment Inc. for tourism-related development.

“With the development or redevelopment of tourism, we have to start thinking about areas along the island where a tourist and a local, more importantly, can use bathroom facilities. Right now, bus drivers ask a resident in the area to use their bathroom and it is even more difficult for sanitation workers because people tend not to let them in their house.

“So, with this development, I am begging that certain areas – and I know we have the parks, but that certain other areas – be designated for workers like these and tourists that we can maintain,” said Browne, adding that it was an opportunity to also create jobs.

In his contribution, Member of Parliament for St Michael East Trevor Prescod expressed concern that for years people who have been squatting in communities close to the old prison have been denied their right to water and proper sanitation facilities.

He claimed that while authorities were busy fighting against the squatters living in a water catchment area, the prisoners at Glendairy were involved in questionable practices to get rid of their faeces.

Prescod charged that up to the time that the prison was closed following a fire in 2005, “they were defecating in buckets and tossing it in a well”.

“They had two wells out there. All of this scientific language about the pollution of the water table, if the people didn’t burn it down and it then became not suitable for the purpose that they had it for, they would still be dumping – 995 prisoners were doing that at Glendairy Prison . . . . In the meantime, a man cannot even get a pit toilet in my area or in St Michael Central area,” he said. (MM)