By Kenville Horne
Shop operators, commuters and persons in general who use the washroom facility at Little Tokyo say they are fed up of the unsanitary and untidy facility.
On the urging of persons who used the facility, THE VINCENTIAN visited to see what conditions were really like. Among the observations: two face basins in the male toilet were damaged and had no running water; there was water on the floor making walking unsafe; tiles were broken and/or missing; toilets were in need of cleaning and proper sanitizing; a constant unpleasant smell came from the facility.
A shop operator with some 19 years at Little Tokyo told THE VINCENTIAN he was tired of talking about the situation.
“It na make no sense talking about this again because the situation remains the same. You have to blame those in authority but also those who use it too. Yes, it need maintaining but some of the people dem too nasty,” he complained.
He said that there was time when a lady was employed to hand out toilet paper to persons desirous of using the facility. “But this was only in de morning,” he said so it wasn’t long into the day that the supply of toilet paper was exhausted.
The shop operator disclosed that he had spent his money on many occasions to purchase disinfectant “to clean down the area and give people to clean as well,” but he is “done with that.”
Larry Delpesche, a patron of the shops in Little Tokyo, agreed that the situation was unhealthy and suggested that the facility should be fully refurbished.
He admitted, though, that we cannot remove the people from the cause of this situation.
“Some people still have the outside toilet mentality; they ain’t adjust themselves to the new millennium of flush toilet…. . They ain’t flushing it but you leave it dey for somebody to flush,” said Delpesche.
Maintenance officer Jimmy Ince joined with Delpesche in suggesting that the facility should be repaired.
The two men were also of the single mind that persons using the facility should be made to pay a fee.
Ince recalled that he last time the facility received any meaningful attention was when Little Tokyo was used as the judging point for the Mardi Gras (Carnival) Mas Bands competition in 2017.