User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in Zambia

Public toilets in Zambia run by the government are often in poor condition and rarely cleaned. As a result, people use toilets at hotels and markets instead.

Public toilets
Some public toilets charge around K5, but these are often in poor condition and rarely cleaned. People sometimes avoid government run public toilets because of cost and cleanliness issues, and instead use toilets at markets and hotels, which tend to be cleaner.

Cultural taboos in some parts of Zambia mean that people sometimes cannot share toilets with different groups, including their in-laws, people of the opposite sex or other generations within their family.

By 2013, Luangwa Safari House, who use do charity work in their local community, had built five public toilet blocks among other activities.

In majority white ruled parts of the country in the late 1970s, public toilets were often available and well maintained as a means of reinforcing racial segregation. These facilities were also something demanded by local white expatriates. This contrasted with public toilet services for other people, which were largely non-existent.

Open defecation and sanitation
Progress began to be made in general waste management in the 1990s.

In the early 2010s, a large percentage of the population of Kitwe lacked adequate sanitation.

Regional and global situation impacting public toilets in Zambia
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.

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.