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Amsterdam increases toilet facilities after women protest
In the future there will be more public toilet facilities for women in Amsterdam. photo
© Robert Michael/dpa
After many protests by women, Amsterdam will build more public toilets for women. The city is investing four million euros.
After years of struggle and a protest pee from For women, more public toilets are being created in Amsterdam that are not just men’s urinals.
The city is investing four million euros and the first of the new toilets should be built this year, reported the public broadcaster NOS, citing a city decision. The trigger for the fight by women in Amsterdam for more public toilets was the conviction of student Geerte Piening in 2015 for peeing wildly.
Because there was no toilet nearby, Piening squatted next to a building out of necessity. For this she received a fine of 90 euros. A court also upheld the punishment after a complaint from the student. She told the court that there were 35 public toilets in Amsterdam, but only two of them were suitable for women. This was followed by protests in which women demonstratively peed in urinals or on the sidewalk.
Piening thinks investing in new toilets is great. “It took quite a long time, but the fact that it is happening now is very good,” she told the NH broadcaster. In the meantime, Piening admitted to the broadcaster, she had been forced to “pee wild” again – that’s what the Dutch call wild peeing.