Persons deliberately messing up airport washrooms

The cleaning staff at the newly opened Argyle International Airport (AIA) are being stretched to their limits, not because of the normal demands of the the job, but because some persons have been deliberately vandalizing the restroom facilities.

In an interview with SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday, Noel Jackson, managing director of The Patriot Company Limited, the entity which has the janitorial contract to clean the AIA, said that a few days after the opening of the facility, persons began deliberately doing things to dirty the airport’s toilet facilities.

Jackson said while there is no physical damage to the infrastructure, persons have gone as far as to defecate in the garbage bins in the toilet area and on the floors of the restrooms. They have also been reeling off large quantities of tissue paper and using it to block the urinals and the toilets, which causes them to overflow.

“The janitorial clerks have a hard time dealing with those issues and it is deliberate act by persons. Over the last four weeks it has been going on and the 25 janitorial clerks have been managing to keep the place clean, but persons have been deliberately dirtying the place and particularly they have been attacking the urinals,” stressed Jackson.

“I don’t understand why people can’t have a pride in what they have. They have a nice little airport there and all we have to do is take care of it. It is there already. Despite what you have been told and how your mind has been prejudiced against the airport, you come now and you see the physical structure and how it is….. [Please] have some pride in it, don’t go and vandalize it like that,” pleaded Jackson.

He said that the acts which he describes as “worthless” and “nasty” are taking place mainly in the departure lounge area and seem to be perpetrated by persons who are travelling out. Jackson said there are no cameras in the toilet facilities, so it is hard to catch someone in the act, so he has no idea how the problem will be solved.

He encouraged persons to take pride in the AIA and treat it the way one treats one’s home.

“I mean, this is a daily occurrence and at times you have to lock off the bathroom to stop the flooding,” said Jackson, noting that some of the urinals have sensors, so when they become blocked and persons go to use them, the sensors trigger the water flow and as a result the water overflows and floods the area.

“The janitorial clerks have been doing a wonderful job in trying to keep it clean and dealing with the vandalism and worthless attitude of the persons who have been coming in there and committing those acts,” Jackson told SEARCHLIGHT.

He added that persons may be charged for what is happening, because defecating on the floor and in the waste baskets is a deliberate act to create problems.