Diefenbunker Museum crowdfunds to fix broken toilets

The toilets at Ottawa's Diefenbunkerwere designed tosurvive an atomic blast, but a cash crunchis forcing the museum to launcha fundraising campaign to avert a meltdown in itsCold War era washrooms.

The Diefenbunker is hoping to raise $10,000 over the next month to fix its plumbing problems.The toilets and plumbing were put in when the undergroundbomb shelterwas built in 1959and only 23 of the bunker's 55 toilets are useable.

The toilets and urinals sit on a one-inch thickrubber base and are connected to a well water system with flexible piping. But although they're designed to "withstand a5 megatonnuclear blast without breaking" the toilets don't flush properly.

"When someone uses a toilet on the first floor, there's not enough pressure in the system to flush toilets on the fourth floor," said facility managerLizz Thrasher.

Staff said when crowds come through there are often huge lineups for limited working washrooms.

The Diefenbunker is a not-for-profit museum, and although it has been designated a national historic site, the bunker doesn't receive federal funding and must compete with other museums for grants.

The extra costs required to fix toilets that have been offline for five years we don't have money for that.Katie Balmer, Diefenbunker Community Outreach Manager

Community outreach manager Katie Balmer says the available grants have been shrinking in recent years forcing the museum to generate more revenue on its own.

Earlier this year the bunker partnered with a private entertainment company to offer "escape room" adventures in its 100,000 square foot space. It alsohosts spy camps for kids andrentsout its facilityfor birthday parties, but this is the first time the museum has turned to crowd-funding.

"70 per cent of our revenue is self earned," said Balmer.

"We use the revenue to pay staff and to pay our exorbitant hydro bill, but the extra costs required to fix toilets that have been offline for five years we don't have money for that. So we're crowd-funding."

Tax filings show that themuseum has an annual budget of about $1 million. The majority of the moneygoes toward paying salaries and benefits for its 20employees. Approximately $55,000 dollars goes to site maintenance, while another $45,000 is spent on utilities.

Last year 65,000 people visited the museum. Staff say they're on track to break that record in 2016.