LOCAL

Getting caught short in Moscow is no fun, with public toilets thin on the ground and all too many unappealing plastic cabins struggling to cater for the demand.

But the city authorities are on the case and by the end of the year the first new bomb-proof facilities are set to sprout on city streets.

The state-of-the-art outhouses are defined as “stand-alone, anti-vandal and anti-terrorist” by officials, and are set to flush away their plastic predecessors in due course.

Underwhelmed

Many residents, however, are unconvinced by the plan, fearing it will be an expensive white elephant.

“All money is going to be stolen and just one toilet will appear – on Red Square,” Dmitry, 34, told the Moscow News.

“There are other problems in Moscow rather than pocketing money allocated for public toilets,” he continued.

And Yevgeny, 35, believes that no modern technology is needed to ease oneself.

“Actually it all costs money and there are loads of other problems that are more important than public toilets,” he said adding that the shortage of toilets could be made up for with the blue cabins.

Safe and warm

Anatoly Ashmikhin, head of Santekhrabot, the company in charge of all Moscow’s public toilets, said that the new model is going to stay warm even in the coldest winter – as the temperature there won’t sink below 16 C.

And damaging it is also going to be hard – as even a bomb explosion inside the cabin won’t cause much damage, he said presenting it at the Chisty Gorod (Clean City) exhibition, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported.

That feature might win the approval of Vladimir Putin, who famously pledged to hunt down terrorists even in the smallest room back in 1999.

“If we find them in a toilet, we'll kill them in the outhouse,” he said then. 

The more the merrier

But tackling terrorists in the toilet is less important to potential users.

“I’m not sure that it’s essential to make them explosion-proofed but if there are more and nicer toilets than now, it’ll be good. So let them be,” Anna (51) said.

And others are dubious about the novelty as the prices for both – the budget and pockets of common city dwellers – haven’t been announced yet.

“If it’s expensive, people won’t use them, I think,” Olga (26) believes. And improving your own communication skills could guarantee you’ll find a way out of any unpleasant situation, she said.

“As for myself, I just ask in cafés if I could use their loo. So I think there’s no problem with it. At least for those who is able to communicate with people.”