Editor,

Last week I was dismayed while riding a ‘moto.’ The motocyclist suddenly stopped in the middle of the highway. I thought there was a grave problem with the ‘moto’ but the rider just wanted to urinate.

I found his behavior completely scandalous; I had to rebuke the man. As an environmentalist, I consider urinating on plants a taboo. The ammonia in urine is simply lethal to plants.

He defended his actions by saying that "it was an emergency”. I understood his health concerns but, there is a more civilized way of easing yourself. For goodness sake, there are public toilets and that’s why you won’t find people easing themselves in every corner of the city.

REMA or the Ministry of health should consider placing huge adverts like those advertising for condom use. These should be in Kinyarwanda, a language that everyone can read, saying something like this; ‘Urinating on the roadside is bad!’

This way we can keep our plants healthy and get rid of the stench of urine along various sidewalks.

Doreen Uwamwezi
Kigali City