Farisai Chirengwa (pictured) lives in Murereka in Mashonaland West in Zimbabwe. She works as an attendant at the newly constructed public toilet block near the market in conjunction with the Welthungerhilfe Sustainable Services for Everyone beyond the Lifetime of the Project at a Fair Price (SELF) project in the CS WASH Fund.  Every day, including Sundays, she opens the toilet block at 6am and stays there until it closes at 6pm. People come to use the toilet and she collects 20 cents per use. The toilet block has only been open a short time so people are still getting used to it but she says on average she gets around 20 people a day using it.  Nearby is the old public toilet block which is free to use, and so is competition for her. However, she says that more and more people are coming to her block, particularly women and people who have difficulty walking and who want to use the accessible toilet.

“The old toilet smells and is dirty”, she said, “people like to come to this one because it is clean and comfortable to use”.

She says that she is paid $100 per month by the Local Authority, and has to buy soap and other cleaning products, so at the moment is just breaking even. However, she hopes that as more people start using the toilet it will become more profitable.