Bandar Seri Begawan - It has been more than three months since the first complaint about the inadequate condition of public toilets at the wet and night market areas in Gadong was published (Aug 28).

Yesterday, the same complaint was brought forward to the Bulletin once again by some of the stall owners about the related issue.

The Bulletin went to the market and found that the doors to the public toilets were still chained shut and inaccessible for most of its users.

One of the fishmongers said that the toilets are among the most basic necessities for those who are working at the market areas and that the maintenance of their safe sanitation should always be taken into great consideration.

"We have waited three months for the authorities to come up with a solution but up until now, we have not heard a single word from them about the whole situation," he said.

Some of the stall owners expressed their disappointment to the Bulletin because the inaccessibility has posed a major inconvenience, not only for the stall owners, but for the visitors as well. He said that many of their customers are finding it difficult to access a toilet and several complaints regarding the inaccessibility were also received from them.

One of the stall owners revealed that one of the most horrendous behaviours that has developed ever since the closure of the public toilets was relieving oneself in public. The Bulletin saw that the entrance to one of the public toilets was blocked with a huge cool box where they would do their 'business'.

"To be honest, there has been an increasing number of people relieving in public and other foul behaviours already just because they are indolent to go to nearby places only because they need to use the toilets. We all know that this behaviour is unhygienic but some of them have no other option, especially when they need to use the toilet immediately," he said.

"It is a waste of our time to drive ourselves to the nearby restaurants, shopping complexes and even the mosque whenever nature calls. We are just extremely disappointed that the toilets have suffered neglect by the authorities and it seems like nobody cares about maintaining these facilities.

"We believe that this is not an image we want to portray to other countries especially when it comes to tourism. We all know that tourists usually come to the night market and it is just embarrassing that we could not offer them a single public toilet whenever they ask for one," he said.

Many of the stall owners hope that the local authorities or the government, whoever is responsible in solving this matter, would have the heart to provide them with appropriate and sufficient public toilets or facilities.

--Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin