You may well be offended that we are talking about pee here. But the situation has got so out of hand that a minor breach of the rules of decorum seems justified. The lack of free public toilets in Brussels, for both men and women, is becoming a structural problem that calls for action.

The management of human waste has always presented us with challenges over the centuries, both technically, socially, culturally and hygienically. In response to the population explosion, many European cities installed public sanitary facilities (for men, that is) in the 19th century: urinals, public toilets and ‘vespasiennes’ popped up here and there in cities to stem an impending health problem. Some cities went to great lengths, both aesthetically and technically, to combine urinals with other street furniture. At the turn of the century, the city of Brussels alone had around 200 public toilets.