A campaign has been launched in Warsaw that places signs outside businesses and institutions that allow people to use their toilets free of charge and without needing to ask permission. It is the first scheme of its type in Poland.
“A clean and safe toilet should be within reach for all of us,” says Fundacja Na Miejscu, the NGO behind the initiative, which also has the backing of the local authorities.
“An accessible toilet is a matter of dignity. Its absence excludes [people], making it harder to leave the home and for some even stops them from doing so.”
Locations taking part in the scheme are provided with stickers and signs saying “you can use the toilet here”, including whether facilities for disabled people are available.
Currently 38 places in Warsaw’s central Śródmieście district have signed up – including library branches, community centres and cultural facilities – and the aim is for more to join the scheme. The locations are listed on the campaign’s website.
To encourage businesses to join, the local authorities say they will offer discounts on rent to those taking part, reports TVN24.
The district’s mayor, Aleksander Ferens, says that the scheme will encourage those concerned about a lack of accessible toilets – such as the elderly, parents with children, pregnant women and people with health problems – to go out more. Nearly 40% of Śródmieście’s residents are seniors.
But it is also hoped that the campaign will help others. “Who hasn’t had an emergency while in town? Who hasn’t walked past a cafe in such a situation, where there was definitely a toilet, but was embarrassed to ask for the key, access code or permission to use it?” says the mayor’s office.
The local authorities have also installed special pink boxes containing sanitary products in some of the available toilets. A number of municipalities and organisations in Poland have in recent years been running campaigns to provide free and accessible sanitary products.
Two years ago, an urban activist group in Warsaw ran a mock campaign announcing the launch of a new app, AirPnP, that would connect people willing to make their private toilets available for a fee with people needing to relieve themselves. The aim was to highlight the lack of public toilets in the city.
Main image credit: Urząd m.st. Warszawy
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
