Adults need toilet training of sorts

In a developing country, the shift of public attention to issues such as public toilets is reflective of the society's progress. Public toilets are important "infrastructure" related to public health and in China deserved greater public attention on World Toilet Day on Tuesday.

Last month hundreds of runners urinated outside the Forbidden City during the Beijing Marathon, which was a major embarrassment for the event organizers who were blamed for failing to provide enough mobile toilets. Two months before this, new legislation in Shenzhen, stipulating that the users of public toilet in the city will be fined 100 yuan ($16) for missing the mark, received more derision than applause, due to the impossibility of enforcing it. Recent years have also seen several high-profile campaigns launched by women to "occupy" men's washrooms, in a bid to get more facilities for women. Pit latrines, squat toilets, buzzing flies and unpleasant smells, public toilets in China used to be a major intimidation to foreign travelers after China opened the door in 1980s. One of my Singaporean friends keen to take his young children for a second visit back to rural Hainan, to get closer to the family's roots, was quickly rebuffed by the kids who were scared of the toilets in China's countryside.

Ensuring there are clean toilets is a public health imperative, unsanitary latrines have been a breeding ground for many communicable diseases in rural China. The government has made great efforts to upgrade toilet facilities since it was recognized as a vital public health task 20 years ago, and the task is one of the five key public health commitments in China's ongoing national healthcare reform. The intermediate goal is to have 75 percent of rural toilets upgraded by 2015, but this is easier said than done given that in the vast underdeveloped regions, having a clean latrine is yet to be a must. Compounding this is budget constraints. Thanks to the government's strengthened financial muscle, full subsidies or matching funds have been made available as financial incentives to encourage rural households to upgrade their toilets. Yet, a more challenging job in the long run is to promote healthy lifestyles including hygienic behavior. The use of sanitized flush toilets is merely the start.