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Businesses on Auckland’s Karangahape Rd are fed up with the lack of public toilets on the iconic street, with some having to clean up human waste outside their shopfronts each morning.
There used to be a public toilet just off the street in Beresford Square, but it was removed during construction of the City Rail Link.
Since then the area has only had a couple of portable toilets on a nearby street for people to use, and they were locked each night.
In the meantime, businesses were being left to clean up the remnants of K Rd’s rowdy nightlife.
Jeweller Ernesto Ovalle runs Oronegro, but instead of spending his mornings working on carving pounamu, he has to spend them cleaning up human waste.
“If they’re drunk, this is the perfect place for them to pee. And then obviously, we try to attract people to our shop, and with the smell and the mess they leave, I have to clean it.”
And it was not just people taking a leak on a night out – Ernesto said occasionally he had seen human faeces on his doorstep.
A person caught on CCTV camera urinating outside Orenegro on Karangahape Rd, Auckland. Photo / RNZ Checkpoint
“It’s really gross. I thought I’d seen everything, but I’m wrong you know... it’s remarkable.”
But he did not blame the public – he said there were no good alternatives. The only options were two portable toilets on Pitt St, locked each night due to vandalism.
People on K Rd reckoned that was not good enough.
“Up K Rd, they need more public toilets and better facilities for people like the homeless and people that’ve got nowhere to go,” one person on the street told RNZ.
“You open the door and someone’s actually dropped a turd right next to the toilet... that’s the reality of it,” said another.
Muy Chhour, landlord of the Lim Chhour foodcourt, said good public toilets were essential for the bustling street.
“We have the retail during the day and we have the awesome nightlife during the night. People visiting us during the day or night do struggle to find a place if they need to use a public toilet.”
Auckland Council had started construction of new public toilets on Mercury Lane, just off K Rd, which were expected to be operational by December. But Chhour did not think that was the right location.
“It’s down a steep street, it’s a wind tunnel... it’s not on the main road where there are lots of people passing by.”
The money would be better spent on toilets down the other end of the road by the rainbow bridge, she said.
New public toilets are being built on Mercury Lane, just off K Rd, Auckland. Photo / RNZ Checkpoint
As Mercury Lane was out of sight of the main street, Chhour feared it would become a hub for anti-social behaviour.
“Drug-dealing will be one problem, other activities as well. Not a great idea to put them there.”
Chhour’s preference for the short-term was for a new toilet block that was part of the City Rail Link construction in Beresford Square to be opened early.
However, Auckland Council said that was not possible. The toilet block was a standalone building, but the council said it was connected to station systems such as power, ventilation and fire monitoring, which had not been tested yet.
Auckland Council director community Rachel Kelleher said it had consistently heard from the community there was a shortage of toilets in the area.
Since 2020, she said the portable toilets in the area had to be replaced a number of times due to vandalism and that was why they were locked overnight.
Construction of the Mercury Lane toilets was part of a broader strategy to provide sufficient facilities for the high volume of people visiting the area, she said.
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