New Zealand’s booming tourism industry is creating a nationwide shortage of toilets with locals and tourists clashing over access to lavatories

More than 3.4 million tourists visited New Zealand in 2016, marking a new record for the small island nation of 4.5 million people.

New Zealand’s economy is heavily reliant on the tourist dollar but the surge in visitor numbers is putting a strain on public infrastructure around the country – and in particular on public toilets.

Friction between tourists and local people over access to public toilets is becoming increasingly common, with some reports of “freedom campers” – who are not staying in paid sites – being barred from using public loos where they often wash themselves, their clothes and their cooking utensils in the hand-basins.

Since the district of Taranaki in the North Island was listed as the second-best region in the world by Lonely Planet in 2016, visitor numbers have surged.

John Sergeant, properties and facilities manager for the South Taranaki council, said a regional meeting was being organised to address the toilet shortage.

Chris Wilkes, a local resident, said more than 50 people each night used a toilet block in South Taranaki that contained a single toilet.

The lone public convenience in South Taranaki. Photograph: Chris Wilkes

He said if they could not access the toilet they would defecate in the nearby bushes, a common occurrence at tourist hot-spots around the country, which left some rivers and beaches contaminated by human faeces and dangerous to swim in.

“All of our infrastructure is so old now and wasn’t designed to cope with millions of tourists,” said Wilkes.

“I am welcoming of visitors to our country but when they are free-loading and the communities and the environment pay the price, that isn’t right.”

Sergeant said the toilet situation was at crisis point.

“We have a lot of people going to the toilet in the bushes and that is completely inappropriate from a cultural and environmental point of view. So we do have a serious issue that needs to be urgently addressed.”

South Taranaki’s story is echoed in tourist towns across the country.

In the tiny town of Glenorchy in the South Island, which is the gateway to Mt Aspiring National Park, visitor numbers average 150,000 a year. This summer emergency portable toilets were shipped in after residents complained of tourists defecating in their private gardens and public parks, and leakage from the septic tanks of the two public toilet blocks.

Fairfax media reported that the Canterbury district in the South Island urgently needed 60 extra public toilets to meet demand.

Libraries in tourist hubs such as Queenstown and Wanaka have also complained of tourists using their bathrooms for sponge baths, brushing their teeth and washing clothes.