Long march ahead for China’s toilet revolution

BEIJING : When China opened its doors to the world decades ago, there was one area that was crucial to modernising its image – its public toilets.

Toilets in China used to be so notorious that potential investors were rumoured to have fled the country in horror.

At one point, one-third of all tourist complaints were about smelly toilets, according to the Beijing Tourism Administration.

In the 1990s, Beijing poured in millions of dollars to upgrade its public toilets in a bid to win the right to host the Olympic Games and improve its international image.

And Beijing is aiming to ensure that no toilet jam will tarnish one of its biggest shows ever – the 60th National Day celebrations.

Half a million people are expected to gather at Tiananmen Square for the October 1 celebrations.

So how do you cater to the needs of 500,000 people to answer the call of nature at any one time? Beijing may just have found a solution.

More than 100 blocks of these temporary toilets were built around Tiananmen Square and Chang’an Ave, providing 3,000 toilet seats for all personnel and participants on the big day.

The toilets are designed to look pleasant and work efficiently.

The urinal space can take up to 60 men a minute, and the walls can be removed to let more people in if it gets too crowded.

“To improve ventilation, these toilets are built with big entrances and exits, ventilation fans, shutters and gaps between shelters and walls. Automatic air fresheners are also used,” said Hou Yajun, design manager of Tsinghua Unisplendour Taihetong Envirotech.

The high-tech toilets show how far China has come in flushing away its poor toilet habits, but the quest to meet its people’s most basic need is far from over.

More than half of China’s cities are facing water shortages, which creates a demand for eco-friendly and water-free toilets.

“A lot of investment and resources need to be put in to change people’s toilet habits. Water-free toilets have yet found their way into homes. Even in the public toilet sector, there’s still a lot of room to grow,” said Yang Yixin, GM of Tsinghua Unisplendour Taihetong Envirotech.

Source – http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/eastasia/view/1008383/1/.html

China, Fujian province: protesters kick up stink at Chinese sewage works

Protests drawing up to 10,000 people flared in eastern China over a powerful stench from a sewage treatment plant with 10 people hurt in clashes, residents and a human rights monitor said [on 1 September 2009].

The demonstration occurred Monday [31 August 2009] when angry villagers from Fujian province’s Fengwei town [Quanzhou city] confronted 2,000 riot police over a wastewater treatment plant that had fouled local air and water, Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

At least 10 people were injured [...] the center said, [adding that] two police cars were smashed and protesters took several government officials and factory workers hostage.

A statement by the local Communist Party’s propaganda department acknowledged the protests, saying when workers prepared to enter the factory they were obstructed by villagers.

[A] report by the state-run Straits Metropolitan News [...] also described the hostage-taking and clashes, but said only about 200 protesters were involved. “A small number of people took advantage of the situation to cause trouble, damaging and smashing equipment,” it said, citing information from the city government.

The wastewater treatment plant had a problem that sent a major stench through the area on Aug. 19 [2009], the statement said. Villagers protested over several days, but the biggest demonstration came [on 31 Aug. 2009]. One resident [...] said the stench was unbearable. “People would puke or faint when they smell it.”

Mass protests over pollution and other environmental problems occur regularly throughout China.

Source: AP / Google News, 01 Sep 2009 ; AFP / Google News, 01 Sep 2009

China: Toilet relief for Shanghai’s World Expo

Shanghai has sought to reassure visitors to next year’s World Expo that they can expect relief from the city’s sometimes foul public toilets. The city will clean up and renovate more than 5,200 public toilets to meet an expected 70 million Expo visitors’ “urgent needs,” according to Ma Yun’an, head of the city’s urban management bureau. [He added that] more than 500 new free toilets will also be installed before the five-month event starts on May 1, 2010

“To offer free public toilets is only part of the whole work. It is also important to improve the service,” Ma said. “Some of the toilets will offer medicine and sewing kits.” More than 300 of the new toilets will be built around the Expo site and they will be supplemented by “mobile public toilets,” he said.

[...] Authorities in Beijing carried out a similar toilet campaign ahead of last year’s Beijing Olympics. The stated goal of the Olympic effort was to make every public toilet a “pleasant experience.”

Source: AFP / Google, 24 Feb 2009 ; China People’s Daily Online, 24 Feb 2009

China, Beijing: all sewage to be reused within three years

The Beijing Sewage Association [said] that within three years, all water processed in the city’s sewage treatment plants will meet requirements for reuse. The annual capacity of Beijing’s nine sewage treatment plants totals 900 million tons, but only 100 million tons of treated water is qualified for reuse. [...] The total quantity of treated water in Beijing is currently 600 million tons, 50% of which can be reused.[An] official said that although the sewage treatment rate has reached 93% in urban areas, it is very difficult to meet a 7% sewage treatment rate in the intersecting areas between urban and rural regions.

See also:  John Leslie MacLean, Beijing Beefs Up Sewage Treatment, ADB, May 2008 and Beijing Municipal Water Bureau

Source: People’s Daily Online, 15 Dec 2008

Congo: Red Cross sets sights on cholera

The lack of clean drinking water and proper hygiene fuelled the spread of cholera in the south and southwest of the Republic of Congo [Brazzaville], says the Congolese Red Cross, which has just completed a campaign to teach people how to recognise and stem the spread of the disease.

[B]y the end of November [2008], 127 cases of the disease and three deaths had been registered [and] at least 22 other cases have been reported in the Kinkassa area and in the Pool region, which surrounds the capital, Brazzaville.

[...]

“In the affected zones, most people have no latrines and they defecate in the grass or near their homes. They have no access to clean water and simply drink untreated water from lakes or rivers,” said [Yvette Mbazo'o Mve of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)].

[..] The Congolese Red Cross mobilised 120 volunteers to carry out a public awareness campaign between July and December [2008] on the dangers of cholera and how to avoid it. “This was done through theatre, sketches and picture boxes,” said Mbazo’o Mve.

Due to this campaign, the number of latrines in Loudima [pop. 10,500] has now risen [from 458] to 1,222 , and locals have built around 400 rubbish pits.

[...] China recently agreed to provide four million dollars to build up the water distribution network in the northern town of Ogo, which has a population of 10,000.

Source: IRIN, 12 Dec 2008

China: sewage plant study raises concerns

Many water treatment facilities in China are failing to remove toxic organic chemicals and levels of some chemicals are actually increasing during treatment, according to researchers from Nankai University, Tianjin.

[...]

One of the chemicals monitored is nonylphenol, released during the breakdown of nonylphenol polyethoxylate detergents. Nonylphenol is an endocrine disrupter and, together with nonylphenol ethoxylates, is banned in the EU because of possible threats to human health.

[The researchers] found that the sewage treatment works only removed 60-70 per cent of nonylphenol polyethoxylate from water, while similar facilities in Europe and North America remove up to 90 per cent of the compound. To make matters worse, nonylphenol polyethoxylate degrades into smaller metabolites, such as nonylphenol, which could be 70 times more toxic than their precursors.

[The researchers] also discovered that [activated sludge] sewage treatment increased levels of the industrial surfactants perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) – persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that may have metabolic, reproductive and neural toxicity.

[...]

Zhang Pengyi, director of the Institute of Environmental Chemistry of Beijing-based Tsinghua University, [commented that] “this should not indicate that sewage treatment plants are the source of the pollutants. PFOS and PFOA form through normal degradation processes of many chemicals in the common environment@.

Source: Hepeng Jia, Royal Society of Chemistry, 22 Aug 2008

China – Plans to conduct China’s rural pollution survey

When the central government announced plans to conduct China’s first rural pollution survey last December, some took it as a sign that the authorities were serious about tackling the serious issue.

And a first-ever State Council meeting on environmental protection in the countryside two weeks ago carried more significance.

Within a mere 10 months, the world’s most populous country, where more than half of its registered residents are from the countryside, has gone from drafting a point of reference for reducing rural pollution – the results of which will be published at the end of this year – to elevating environmental protection in rural areas to a strategic position at top levels.

Pollution control in rural China hasn’t been easy. Millions of rural Chinese still have no access to clean drinking water and pollution is the culprit for 90 million of them. Add that to the growing amount of sewage waste throughout the countryside even in face of a deteriorating labor force and diminishing population.

According to Vice-Minister of Environment Protection Wu Xiaoqing, 280 million tons of household garbage, 9 billion tons of domestic sewage and 260 million tons of human excrement were generated – and mostly dispersed on site or at will – per year.

More – China Daily

China: Beijing enlists Olympic size toilet army

By AMANDA L. PENTLER, Tuesday, June 24th 2008, 12:04 PM

Beijing has dispatched 8,000 personnel for a mass toilet maintenance staff, and each will be responsible for a specific restroom in the city during the Olympics.

Reuters reports that the staff is trained in hygiene standards, knowledge of the Olympics and basic English expressions. (…)

Read all nydailynews.com

China – Red Cross delivers clean water, sanitation to townships

The International Red Cross movement is mounting a major effort to provide clean water and sanitation facilities to quake-hit townships in Sichuan’s Mianzhu prefecture as part of ongoing work to prevent a post-disaster epidemic.

Read More – China.org

China: Which toilet to use? Squat vs sit-down in Beijing

BEIJING – Among all the protests, pollution concerns and talk of boycotts surrounding the Beijing Olympics, a more basic problem has arisen for organizers: the toilets.

At the more than 30 test events held by organizers, the presence of squat toilets at many of the new and renovated venues has drawn frequent complaints.

(Copyright Associated Press) Read all 9news.com