July 20, 2023, 4:00 AM
July 20, 2023, 4:00 AM
Scrubbed batteries, urinals and faucets in poor condition are some of the problems that the students of the Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University (Uagrm) point out about the conditions of the toilets and demand that maintenance be complied with.
The students assure that this is a recurring problem and that it has not been possible to solve it in any of the procedures, while the authorities assure that they carry out the maintenance, but there are people who commit acts of vandalism that only destroy the arrangements that are made.
Regarding this problem, the rector of the state-owned Santa Cruz, Vicente Cuéllar, said that the faculties and each of the careers will be requested to make a greater control in the environments.
Students point out that they spend many hours on the university campus, because they come to pass classes, practice and do homework, so the bathrooms are essential. However, they consider that in many of the toilets only patch fixes are made.
The students indicate that sometimes they prefer to walk a few more meters and look for the toilets that are in better condition. “Many times they are scrubbed, they smell bad or they don’t have water,” said one of the university students.
“We come to this bathroom (on campus) because sometimes there is no water and it lacks cleanliness,” commented Hanna López from the Law degree.
He points out that in some of the bathrooms of this faculty, one of the oldest in the Santa Cruz state, they have toilets without lids and there’s even a sign above a urinal that says, “If it can’t on the first try, push the button again.”
In another of the bathrooms, one of the urinals is damaged and gives off a bad smell from use.
“The lack of cleanliness in the bathrooms can cause us infections, both women and men. The bins are overflowing and this leaves a bad appearance. The blame for this falls on the students because they don’t know how to take care of the bathrooms. and also at the same university because it does not keep this sector clean, which is used by hundreds of people,” said Noelia Ventura, a medical student.
Other students of this career ensured that the bathrooms start clean on Mondays, but until Friday they become unusable, so they request that the cleaning be done permanently.
In the Faculty of Humanities, the situation is similar and one of the spaces in the bathroom is used to store garbage cans.
The urinals of the Medicine career have the same problems, since the lack of covers in the toilets is evident and a faucet is fastened with plastic bag. In this sector there were staff doing the cleaning.
“I think that the maintenance and its respective cleanliness should be permanent because everything is dirty,” says Ángel Arancibia, a Mechanics student.
The students agree that general maintenance is necessary to leave all the toilets in good condition.
This is not a new problem, since last year a group of students also denounced that the toilets were deteriorated and dirty.
In 2019, before the pandemic and the suspension of face-to-face classes, the situation was similar. In that opportunity, a group of university students from the Faculty of Exact Sciences and Technology took the modules for two days of the state university asking for improvements in the infrastructure and the arrangement of the toilets.
Something that also generated claims on that occasion was the use of a bucket to load water and empty the toilets.
Recently, The university students ran some claims on social networks for the lack of maintenance in the infrastructuresuch as broken glass in the modules, where in the cold season the wind feels stronger and exposes them to diseases.
The rector of the university recalled that cleaning inside the house of higher studies is a decentralized service, that is to say, that each faculty is responsible for the actions of maintenance and washing of their environments, within which are included the bathrooms that are located on the floors of each faculty.
“It is very difficult to control and supervise, because physical structures have been built with adequate toilets, but in some cases the faucets or mirrors only last one day. There is a lack of awareness on the part of the students”, considered Cuéllar and announced that the faculties will be required to establish measures to keep the bathrooms in good condition.
The head of the Directorate of University Infrastructure and Equipment (DIEU), Cristian Barriga, explained that the maintenance of fans, bathrooms, electrical outlets, light bulbs and cleaning, among other jobs, depends on each faculty.
Meanwhile, he said that, in the common areas of the state university, such as the bathrooms of the university campus that are not assigned to the faculties, the work is in charge of the DIEU.
“We have had to live that Every time we have to change an appliance, such as a faucet, outlet plate or light fixture, sometimes they don’t even last a day. Unfortunately there are people who are committing vandalism”, observed the person in charge.
It indicates that the surveillance cameras have made it possible to identify some of those responsible for these acts of vandalism, but there is also a lack of user awareness.
The state-owned company from Santa Cruz is the largest in the country, with more than 100,000 university students and manages a budget of more than one billion Bolivians and most of its resources are destined for salaries.
