User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in Malawi

Public toilets in Malawi are few in number and are poorly maintained. A number of new toilets were built in 2015, using ecological sanitation. People in Malawi have a general issue with a lack of access to adequate toilet facilities, and some efforts are being taken to address this.

Public toilets
A 2021 study found there was one public toilet per 100,000 people. The buses that run between Blantyre and Lilongwe often have toilets on board. The public toilets at the Ntcheu Market Centre were often blocked for weeks at a time in the 2000s. This meant human waste sometimes found its way into agricultural products being sold at the market. Five new public toilets were opened in the area near Ndirande near local markets in May 2015. Two were specifically in Ndirande, and one each was in Manase, Nancholi, and Likotima. The toilets were constructed by Malawi Alliance, and used EcoSan technology, which meant they required very little water to function. The toilets required users to pay to use, with these fees being invested back into maintaining and cleaning the toilets.

In the early 2010s, a large percentage of the population of Blantyre lacked adequate sanitation. Only 5% of Chikhwawa residents had adequate sanitation facilities in the 2010s. Water For People Malawi decided to launch a market based approach to try to address the lack of toilets in people's residences by encouraging local masons to construct latrines. The organizations provided local masons with information on different types of latrines and their construction, provided business training and then provided them with seed capital to acquire the supplies to construct latrines as a one-off investment so that after they build their first latrines, the money could be then be reinvested back into their business. Households could then pay cash for new latrines or they could pay by allowing masons to collect human refuse for resale for agricultural purposes. Water For People Malawi trained 70 masons between 2008 and 2011. By 2012, only 31 masons were still building latrines, and only one had managed to do so profitably. The program had moderate success in building new household latrines in places like Ng'ombe. Issues with the program included people being resistant to paying for cement that masons had been given for free, a high price point and a perception traditional pit latrines being constructed were unsafe.

In low-income parts of Lilongwe, Malawi, bathing occurs frequently. Some residents take two or three bucket showers a day, despite often having limited access to water in their homes.

Regional and global situation impacting public toilets in Malawi
Around 2.5 billion people around the world in 2018 did not have access to adequate toilet facilities. Around 4.5 billion people lacked access to proper sanitation. Public toilet access around the world is most acute in the Global South, with around 3.6 billion people, 40% of the world's total population, lacking access to any toilet facilities. 2.3 people in the the Global South do not have toilet facilities in their residence. Despite the fact that the United Nation made a declaration in 2010 that clean water and sanitation is a human right, little has been done in many places towards addressing this on a wider level. There are a lack of public toilets in East Africa.

Public toilets, depending on their design, can be tools of social exclusion. The lack of single-sex women's toilets in developing countries makes it harder for women to participate in public life, in education and in the workplace. In developing countries, unisex public toilets have been a disaster because they make women feel unsafe and fail to consider local religious beliefs. Across Africa, open defecation had social consequences. These included loss of dignity and privacy. Lack of access to adequate sanitation in the 2000s and 2010s left women particularly vulnerable to sexual and gender violence.

An issue in developing countries is toilet access in schools. Only 46% of schools in developing countries have them. Many schools around the world in 2018 did not have toilets, with the problem particularly acute in parts of Africa and Asia. Only one in five primary schools on earth had a toilet and only one in eight secondary schools had public toilets. 344 million children in sub-Saharan Africa did not have a toilet in their home in 2018. The lack of toilet access put these children at risk of water borne diseases.

There are generally two toilet styles in public bathrooms in Africa. One is a traditional squat toilet. The other is a western style toilet with bowl and a place to sit.