Can Brussels curb public urination without making public toilets less accessible?
Brussels municipalities outlined different approaches on 20 August to curb public urination, balancing more public facilities against concerns about maintenance, vandalism, drug use and unequal access across the capital.
In 30 seconds
- The City of Brussels Toilet Action Plan provides for ten planted mobile urinals and treatment at 14 identified sites.
- BX1 reported that the City managed 35 public toilets in 2025, including 18 in the Pentagon.
- Four Brussels municipalities were reported to have no public toilet in 2025.
- The welcoming-toilets network included 54 hospitality venues and 13 City buildings, according to BX1.
municipalities have set out a patchwork of measures to curb public urination, with local authorities telling La Libre and La Dernière Heure on 20 August that they must expand access to toilets without allowing poorly supervised facilities to become unsafe or, in one official’s blunt formulation, a “shooting room”. The reporting confirms no new region-wide programme: responsibility remains divided among the capital’s 19 communes and public operators.
That matters immediately to residents, commuters and visitors because the availability of a toilet can change abruptly at a municipal boundary, while stations, parks and busy nightlife streets involve authorities including the communes, and the STIB transport operator. Brussels is also Belgium’s principal international and EU district, but this is fundamentally a city-management issue rather than an EU institutional story: the people most exposed are those who spend long periods in public space, particularly homeless people, women, older residents and people with reduced mobility.
The municipalities’ dilemma is not simply whether to install more cubicles. Toilets require cleaning, repairs, water or sewer connections and, in some locations, oversight. Officials quoted by La Libre and La Dernière Heure framed drug consumption and misuse as reasons for caution. That concern is legitimate for staff and users, but it can also produce facilities designed around exclusion rather than accessibility if authorities treat every vulnerable user as a security threat.
The has already chosen a mixed model. Its Toilet Action Plan, updated in April 2026, provides for ten planted mobile urinals known as “uritrottoirs” at identified black spots, protective wall treatments at 14 other sites, temporary units and clearer signs. It also recruits cafés, shops and cultural venues into an “Accessible Toilets” network. The City’s official map distinguishes free and paid facilities and lists opening hours and accessibility information.
The provision remains uneven. reported from figures supplied by the office of City cleaning alderman Anas Ben Abdelmoumen that the City of Brussels managed 35 public toilets in 2025, 18 of them inside the . The same account said Ganshoren, Koekelberg, Forest and Etterbeek then had no public toilet, illustrating why a citywide journey cannot be understood through the central municipality’s figures alone. BX1 also reported that 54 hospitality businesses and 13 municipal buildings participated in the welcoming-toilets network.
Street Nurses offers a different framing from the language of nuisance and deterrence. The Brussels non-profit, working with Brussels Environment, Vivaqua, STIB and other partners, describes free sanitation as essential to health, dignity and recovery for people without housing. Its coordinator, Emilie Meessen, said people living on the street struggle to maintain hygiene without water and toilets. The organisation’s regularly checked map is intended for homeless people but is also useful to residents and tourists.
Where this is happening
View on map Brussels →This tension has a longer history. The City’s 2021 plan acknowledged that 29 urinals and ten toilets installed since 2009 had not eliminated public urination, especially in nightlife areas. It also recognised a gender imbalance: conventional urinals predominantly serve men, whereas enclosed, accessible toilets serve a wider population. The City’s 2024 water plan consequently called for neighbourhood mapping of both existing sanitation and unmet demand, followed by phased installations with maintenance requirements built in.
The broader lesson is that public urination is both misconduct and an infrastructure signal. Fines and resistant materials may protect walls, while toilets and reliable opening hours address the underlying need. Neither approach works well alone. Brussels now needs comparable information across all 19 communes: locations, hours, accessibility, outages, cleaning costs and incidents. The next test is whether municipal initiatives become a coherent regional network—or remain isolated responses whose gaps are most visible to people with nowhere private to go.
What to do
If you need a toilet while travelling through Brussels, check the Street Nurses map and the City of Brussels toilet listings before setting out, especially outside central Brussels or after normal opening hours. Do not assume the next municipality offers the same coverage: four municipalities were reported to have no public toilet in 2025. In the City of Brussels, the available network includes municipal facilities and participating hospitality venues, but access and hours may differ. Watch municipal announcements for implementation details concerning the ten planned planted mobile urinals and 14 treatment sites.
Impact
Regional — The issue spans the Brussels-Capital Region, but provision and policy differ by municipality. Central Brussels has the largest documented network, while several outer communes were reported to have no public toilet in 2025.
EvidenceWell established · 2 primary sources + 2 official documents + 1 independent reporting source · Background sources: 1Explore evidence →Hide evidence ↑
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- 20 Aug 2026, 02:00
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Voices & reactions
What the main actors are doing
Reported positions, summarised — not direct quotationsMunicipal cleanliness and safety officials
Municipal authorities frame public urination as a cleanliness and neighbourhood nuisance requiring more infrastructure, deterrence and durable design. Their concern is that unsupervised toilets can be vandalised, become costly to maintain or facilitate drug consumption, making careful siting and oversight necessary.
Street Nurses and homelessness advocates
Street Nurses frames free toilets primarily as health and dignity infrastructure. From this perspective, restricting access because vulnerable people may use a facility risks worsening street hygiene and exclusion; dependable opening hours, maintenance and social support are more constructive than treating users chiefly as a security problem.
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This story was assembled from verified evidence, with its sources and reasoning recorded as it was written.