Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-07-18
Toilets in
the Chinese countryside have earned a nasty reputation, with some little more
than ramshackle shelters surrounded by bunches of cornstalk and others just
open pits next to pigsties.
However, a
toilet revolution is under way as the Chinese government scrambles to meet a UN
health target requiring 75% of rural areas to have sanitary toilets by this
year.
China's
national standard require toilets in rural homes to have walls, roofs, doors
and windows and to be at least two square meters in size. They may be flush
toilets or dry toilets with underground storage tanks.
Provincial
officials around the country said they have been urged to renovate sub-standard
toilets and build new ones for farmers.
"Toilets
seem like quite an insignificant thing, easily overlooked, but we find it to be
an important and quite difficult task," Chen Xiaojin, deputy chief of the health
department in eastern China's Jiangsu province, told Xinhua.
Currently,
94% of rural Jiangsu homes have these "sanitary" toilets. Chen said
Jiangsu boasts the highest number of up-to-standard toilets in the country,
thanks to persistent work in persuading and assisting rural residents to
upgrade their facilities.
Sanitary
toilets are a health priority for Jiangsu officials. The provincial health
department publishes a ranking of cities each month based on their work to
build new toilets. Officials who have slacked off risk being reprimanded.
According
to the National Health and Family Planning Commission, a national figure on
rural toilets will not be available until the end of the year. But the
commission said China should have no problem meeting the UN target, as the 2014
figure had already reached 74%. China will set an additional national target of
85% for 2020.
"We
must realize the period from now to 2020 is crucial. We are under a lot of
pressure, and officials at every level must advance with the campaign,"
said Li Bin, head of the commission, at a national conference last December.
In Yongkang
Village in central Jiangsu, villager Bu has just finished building a flush
toilet.
"This
kind of new, high-quality toilet is much better and cleaner with no
smell," he said. His old one was a thatched space full of flies and
maggots. "In the countryside, toilets used to be the dirtiest places. Now
they have become the cleanest spots," he said.
HEAVY
FUNDING
In Bu's
village, each household received 800 yuan (about US$130) from the government to
rebuild or renovate their toilets during the first half of 2015. The average
home toilet upgrade costs about 3,000 yuan (about US$485), and the farmers must
make up the costs not covered by the subsidies.
From 2004
to 2013, China's central government earmarked 8.27 billion yuan (US$1.33
billion) to build toilets in rural areas. Farmers who have agreed to build new
toilets are eligible to receive the funds. The amounts vary from 150 yuan
(US$24) in central and western China to 500 yuan (US$80) in the eastern and
southern regions, where building materials are more expensive. Local
governments with deeper pockets may also offer additional subsidies to
villagers.
However,
officials claim convincing rural residents to change their toilets is a
challenge. "Most villagers are used to their way of using the toilet. It
is hard to change," said Wang Zhigang, Communist Party secretary in
Tanggou township in northern Jiangsu.
Farmers
collect feces to be composted on their farmland. If they use flush toilets, no
compost will be left behind. Dry toilets with tanks bring the extra task of
regular cleaning.
"We
had to build a few toilets first and take villagers to visit, and then
encourage them to build new ones," he said. Slogans such as "sanitary
toilets improve lives" are painted on walls of rural homes. TV stations
are told to air videos promoting the use of better toilet facilities.
Fu Yanfen,
a researcher at China Disease Prevention and Control, warned that about 80% of
contagious diseases such as diarrhea and cholera in rural China are caused by
contamination from toilets.
"The
improvement of rural health has a profound impact on rural life and the rural
economy. The local government must keep up with their work. We should continue
to help the villagers in the repair, cleaning and maintenance of these
facilities," Health Minister Li Bin said.
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A renovated
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