Tough to stop peeing in public

“The temporary toilets have not been used as much as we had hoped,” according to Muharrem Demirok, chairman of the county’s building committee.

Two public toilets were placed in downtown Linköping close to the town’s entertainment district following discussions about how to alleviate the problem of public urination on walls and building entryways in the downtown area.

“This is both a sanitary nuisance and it creates a sense of insecurity in the community. People feel uncomfortable when drunks openly pee in public,” the county official told newspaper Östgöta Correspondenten.

The temporary toilets are well illuminated and clearly identified with large signs. The problem instead is apparently that some people, primarily young men who have been drinking alcohol, prefer to pee on walls.

Several dozen readers responded online when the local newspaper asked how offenders should be punished.

The solutions offered including public shaming, castration, fines, electrified walls or the classification of people peeing in public as terrorists. A minority felt public urination shouldn’t be punished at all, while one respondent felt the politicians should be punished, for not creating more public toilets.