PHОТО:  UNIAN,

Just about every tourist that has visited any Ukrainian city runs into one and the same problem – namely, finding a public restroom to answer to the call of Mother Nature while on a sightseeing tour. The UEFA Euro 2012 Football Championships is upon us, meaning the problem of a sufficient number of public WCs must be resolved. Weekly.ua tried to find out why neither city authorities nor entrepreneurs are in a hurry to take up this matter

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Shopping around restrooms
Kyiv city authorities say the situation with public WCs is not as bad as it appears, as their number is constantly growing. Perhaps this is true, but finding them in downtown Kyiv is problematic. Indeed, there are only six signs indicating the location of public toilets, all of them on Khreshchatyk.
Given this, people that have to pay a visit to a public toilet are forced to wait in long lines. In truth, there are many more public toilets in the downtown area (see map attached). All cities in Ukraine face a similar problem. The thought even comes to mind that there might be a conspiracy among municipal authorities that are not interested in the development of toilet infrastructure. Some people honestly believe this.
"The fact is the city authorities have an unwritten strategy. They exploit the availability of public toilets in shopping malls to lure locals and guests in. Not a single blueprint of new buildings in Kyiv includes a public restroom. Public toilets exist only in shopping malls and in rare cases in supermarkets. Clearly, the idea is that people will not only visit a restroom but also make some small purchases,” said Oleksandr Bryhynets, a Kyiv city councilman.

Everybody wants to stay clean
The city administration has no money for the construction of new toilets and the modernization of old ones. This business does not seem to be attractive to investors as the return on investment in public restrooms is pretty slow.
Around UAH 400,000 is needed to renovate an old WC in downtown Kyiv. This amount will cover the cost of repairing utility networks, installation of equipment, outdoor and indoor works, licenses, bribes, etc.
Once open public restrooms will yield revenues of UAH 22,000 a month at a fee of UAH 2 per visitor. Statistically, human traffic is 30 people per hour.
After deducting expenses of UAH 5,000-7,000 for rent, UAH 6,000 to cover wages of attendants and cleaners, UAH 1,000 for sanitary and technical service personnel and UAH 2,000 for toilet paper and soap the net profit is UAH 5,0008,000 a month. A quick calculation shows that at such a profit the return on investment will be 4-7 years. Given this, it should come as no surprise that entrepreneurs prefer to make restrooms only a part of their business, for example, by opening them in shopping malls.

Red tape martyrdom
 "There is no such thing as an unprofitable business. Of course, a WC will not make you rich over night, but this business is considered to be profitable all over the world," said Chief of the Sanitation Department at the Kyiv Central Administration of the Municipal Economy Oleksandr Lelychenko.
Mr. Lelychenko does not take into account the fact that the cost of restroom services abroad is considerably higher, while taxes and rent are, as a rule, lower. Furthermore, entrepreneurs in the industry do not have to grease the palms of all controlling bodies and obtaining permits does not take a minimum of 6 months and does not cost thousands of dollars.
“When I started up my business I tried going through all bodies on my own,” said Viktor Vylynskoy, an owner of three public restrooms in Dnipropetrovsk. “After six months I gave up and found a person that pushed all the paperwork through in a matter of three days for UAH 50,000. I spent one year and approximately UAH 100,000 to obtain the required licenses. Four years have passed since then and I have yet to see a return on my investment,” he added.
Authorization documents are a different story altogether. As it turned out, the package of required documents is different from district to district. Officially permission of the sanitary and epidemiological service, the State Auto Inspection to avoid occupying parking spaces when the matter concerns portable bio-toilets, the landscaping department (Zelenbud) and the municipal department of architecture is required. In truth, however, a dozen other permits issued by different authorities of district and city administrations, the fire department, the tax service and even the pension fund are needed.

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Smeared impression
"There was a time when old restrooms sold well and it was a cushy business at the time," said Bryhynets. “The new owners built other objects in their place. For example, they privatized classic Soviet toilets near Navodnytskiy Park. And do you actually think they renovated them? Of course not. They simply bought them out from the city and eventually built a cafe or a supermarket in their place,” he added.
Last year’s experiment of the city authorities when all cafes and restaurants were obligated to allow passersby to use their restrooms also failed. First of all, they did not always let them in. Secondly, most people felt uncomfortable asking permission to visit the toilet in front of strangers.
Portable bio-toilets are also not a solution to the problem. Indeed, their sanitary condition makes most people nauseous. “A program for the renovation of old toilets and construction of new ones in Kyiv will be drafted soon,” said Lelychenko.
“We will attract investors and offer all possible concessions. For example, we will give permission to post advertisement in public restrooms and even sell certain products (for example, wet wipes or condoms – Weekly.ua). Kyiv City Hall has received numerous complaints and demands from the city’s residents concerning public places where new restrooms are needed. So, we will devise a plan for their location taking into account people’s requests," he added.
Officials at Kyiv City Hall hope to resolve the problem with public restrooms before the Euro 2012 championships begin. If they do not, hundreds of thousands of foreign football fans will have a tainted impression of Ukraine, to put it mildly.

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