Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Thursday, November 30, 2017

World Toilet Day

We missed the special day last week, but at least the Chinese government was talking about it. We expect the British are up to top standards, but what are sewerage systems like in poor and rural Russia, Nigeria, Mexico, and Iran?

China’s public bathroom blitz goes nationwide as Xi Jinping rallies forces in the ‘toilet revolution’
Chinese President Xi Jinping said public toilets throughout the country – from rural villages to urban areas – should be upgraded to help improve living standards, Xinhua reported on Monday…

In 2015, China started a three-year campaign to improve the standard of public toilets at tourist sites across the country.

In April that year, Xi said upgrading toilet facilities was integral to improving conditions in China’s tourism industry…

As of last month, more than 68,000 public toilets had been refurbished, 20 per cent more than the original target, according to Xinhua.

The overhaul was backed by more than 1 billion yuan (US$152 million) in central government funding and over 20 billion yuan from local authorities.

To mark World Toilet Day on November 19, the National Tourism Administration pledged to erect another 47,000 toilets and refurbish 17,000 others over the next two years…

Bai Lin, China project manager with the World Toilet Organisation, said the toilet revolution was driven by a desire to boost tourism, but hygienic toilets were essential to the wider public.

“There is still a yawning gap between China’s strong economic development and people’s standard of living. A beautiful environment and hygienic toilets are essential to a good standard,” Bai said.

While building new toilets and upgrading others, China also needed to work on waste treatment, with sewage threatening the country’s vulnerable underground water system, he said…

He said China’s toilet coverage was good compared to other Asian countries, but its waste water processing was still not up to international standard.

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