The only public toilet in Pristina that was free becomes 50 cents

The capital is known as the place with few public toilets. Even those that do exist are paid. Now even the only public toilet that was free until recently has become paid. To use it, citizens have to pay 50 cents

About two years after the "Underground Parking" became operational, the only public toilet, which was free in Pristina, has now become paid.

The director of the "Parking Center", Korab Fazliu, had previously warned about this measure, arguing that the toilet was suffering major damage.

According to Fazliu, the toilet was being misused by citizens.

"As I warned at the beginning, I have always emphasized that no damage should be caused to the common good. My words have been respected to some extent by our clients, but there have also been other clients who have visited us only to cause damage. As I have emphasized before, maintenance has a cost, there are staff, consumable materials and there is also a cost of damage caused by unscrupulous people. This has obliged us to return the public toilet to a fee. The price is symbolic, 0.50 euros per visit. We still continue to exempt the elderly, children or people who cannot afford it from paying. However, the whole essence of why we have returned it to a fee is that clients who need to visit our spaces should be as they should be, clean and with all the necessary equipment. While those who had as their goal the damage of these spaces should be eliminated, and we have managed to do this", emphasizes Fazliu.

According to him, the return to payment is not intended to benefit, but simply to avoid further damage to the spaces.

"The damage was to the switches of the toilet lids. In addition to the lids being removed, the internal water system was also removed, and this cost more than 800 euros in product costs alone. The sinks and mirrors were broken very often. The return with a fee has nothing to do with profit aspects, but was simply to avoid people who have used these toilets only for damage," Fazliu declares.

Now, according to him, the situation has improved since the toilet became a paid facility, because the flow of those using it has decreased.

"Since December, we have only had one problem with a group of young people who wrote graffiti on the walls. Although we have the data, we have the cameras to see who did it, but in cases where we can avoid it without any cost, we restore these damages ourselves to their previous state. However, in any other case, they are reported to the security agencies. Every damage has a cost and the one who did it must pay for it," Fazliu emphasizes.

He says that this has been welcomed by the citizens.

"Since the day of the paid return, we have only received positive comments. There has been more traffic and very often it has happened that within 5 minutes they become more dirty. Before they returned without paying, a mindset was created that they enter these toilets only to damage them. Not that less maintenance has been done, but the flow now is not the same as before," says Fazliu.

However, Pristina citizens express concern about the lack of public toilets in the city, and some of the toilets that are offered for a fee, they say, do not offer good hygienic conditions. 

According to them, Pristina needs more toilets. While there are different opinions about the return of this paid toilet.

In addition, the Municipality of Pristina has public toilets in Gërmia Park and the City Park, but neither of them is functional for citizens.