The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution on July 24th, 2013, proposed by the Government of Singapore on “Sanitation for All” and the establishment of November 19th as World Toilet Day. Adopted by consensus, the resolution was co-sponsored by more than 100 countries.
This short article first introduces “World Toilet Day” explaining that there are currently 2,5 billion people without access to proper toilets in the world then focuses on the situation in China.
At the end of 2012, the toilet coverage of China’s rural areas was 71.7%. According to the “standards for public toilets” published by the Ministry of Health in 2013, there should be twice as many public toilets for women than for men in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and 6 other Chinese cities. The standards also define 4 levels of “public toilet foul smell” and stress that public toilets’ foul smell should not be above level 2 which means that the number of flies per square meter should be limited to three.
Finally, starting 2014, Beijing has been increasing the number of “third toilets” (toilets where persons assisting other persons of different sex in going to the toilet are able to go) in newly built and renovated public toilets facilities.
