“It’s impossible for me to use them”: are the public toilets in Toulouse too dirty?
Toulouse residents, especially women, are indignant at the state of public toilets in the Pink City, deemed too dirty. JCDecaux, however, ensures that it has not received any complaints.
Traces of urine on the walls, syringes and bottles of ammonia on the ground, nauseating smell… Many Toulouse residents have turned back due to the state of certain public toilets. Élodie has often had the bitter experience of this. The forty-year-old woman criss-crosses Toulouse on a daily basis by bicycle. During her travels, her irrepressible urge to urinate leads her to the various sanisettes in the city. “Almost every time”, the scenario is similar. “It is a surpassing of oneself to go there, she plagues. Often, public toilets are extremely dirty, when they do not look like a shoot room or are not available. I feel like the city is spending a lot of money to make these washrooms a limited feature. »
Read also :
Too many public toilets out of service in Toulouse?
According to her, the cleanliness of the sanisettes is done according to the events or their location. “During the festive events, the toilets in the surroundings are clean. Those of the meadow of the filters are nickels when Rio Loco takes place. A few days later, they become unhealthy again. The few sanitary facilities specific to the year are those located in tourist areas, such as the Jardin des Plantes,” analyzes Elodie. La Toulousaine had begun to compile many photos of public toilets in a “deplorable state”, before finally abandoning her project. From now on, she combines to relieve herself. “Sometimes I use the offices of clinics”, slips this resident of the Saint-Agne district.
Between 2021 and 2022, use of public toilets increased
Élodie is not the only one to have made this observation. Christine Bertrand, the president of the Saint-Cyprien district committee, deplores the ruin of the sanisettes. She assures that only young people, alcoholic people or those who have no choice, especially the homeless, perform there. “These places are not suitable for women or children. Personally, if I had any, I wouldn’t bring them to urinate there. Hygiene is not adequate. Many people urinate next to public toilets…”, she says.
Read also :
Toulouse: locked in public toilets, a Toulouse woman showered by automatic cleaning
For two years, Christine Bertrand has been waging a standoff with the town hall of Toulouse. She is campaigning for new toilets to be installed in her neighborhood. “We are not all equal when it comes to this essential need, especially men and women. We would like the public toilets to be installed in the Raymond IV garden and on the Charles de Fitte alleys and above all that they be well maintained. »
For Patrick Trégou, regional director of JCDecaux, manager of public toilets in Toulouse, “there is no subject”. He assures that he has not received a complaint on the subject. “The only problems which persist at present are a water problem in the toilets of Victor-Hugo as well as the presence of a homeless person in those of Jean-Jaurès”, sweeps the regional director of JCDecaux.
If public toilets condemn a bad image – rightly or wrongly? – the number of users increased in Toulouse. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of users in the city’s 67 sanisettes has increased by 50,000. But for many more, the desire to go there is not too pressing…