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Public toilets are slow to be refurbished, but they are not good for bureaucracy

2019-11-28T10:38:24.462Z


Maintenance and renovation of public toilets and cleaning management seem to be a trivial matter in the community, but the harsh public toilet environment is a hotbed of germs, which is related to public health. The Audit Commission released the "Report of the Director of Audit No. 73" on Wednesday (27th)


01 perspective

Written by: Comment Editor

2019-11-28 18:25

Last updated: 2019-11-28 18:26

Maintenance and renovation of public toilets and cleaning management seem to be a trivial matter in the community, but the harsh public toilet environment is a hotbed of germs, which is related to public health. The Audit Commission released the Director of Audit's Report No. 73 on Wednesday (27th), which focused on food environmental sanitation planning, installation and management of public toilets, and found that the quality of the FEHD's public toilet renovation works needs to be improved, and toilet affairs The working environment of the staff is bad. Why can't the one-off appropriation allocated by the government solve the stench of public toilets?

Ten years of unrenovated reconstruction is more practical?

As of June 2019, the FEHD manages 798 public toilets in Hong Kong, and there are still 51 dry toilets in the New Territories and outlying islands. The FEHD has implemented a public toilet renovation plan since 2000 to improve the design and facilities of public toilets. However, the renovation progress has been slow. Some public toilets have not been renovated for ten years. Of the 798 public toilets, 138 have not been included in the plan for ten years, and 29 of them are used High (minimum 300 visits per day).

Audit points out that the quality of public toilet renovation works in FEHD needs to be improved and the working environment of toilet staff is bad. (Profile picture)

First, the government cannot think that granting money can solve all problems, and it must make the renovation project more efficient from a mechanism perspective. This year's Government Budget has allocated 600 million to refurbish 30% of the public toilets in Hong Kong, with an average of 2.5 million yuan allocated to each public toilet. The audit report recommended that the FEHD, together with the Architectural Services Department, should review the current refurbishment order of public toilets with regard to the utilization rate and current situation of public toilets, and give priority to refurbishing public toilets with high utilization rates.

Second, in improving efficiency, government departments should step up cooperation with district boards. In addition to the refurbishment order, which can be collected from the District Councils, Audit also mentioned that funding for a public toilet renovation project in Yuen Long was approved in early 2011. However, due to consultation opinions and district board members' requirements, it was delayed until this year. The new district councillors will take office on January 1. Many of them are enthusiastic newcomers. Whether new personnel can have a new style will depend on whether the executive branch can work with district boards to improve bureaucratic practices.

Third, one-off grants tend to neglect the supporting work involved in refurbishing public toilets. If the broken public toilets are to be “reborn”, the government can consider turning the funds for refurbishing public toilets into regular funding to support long-term public toilet renovation projects. The environment of some public toilets is harsh and unbearable. The problems often arise from oldness, seepage, failure of flushing, neglect to clean, etc. The update project for the problem involves water, sewage, ventilation and other systems. This looks like community chores, but it is actually expensive. . As criticized by Xiong Zhiquan, a veteran waterworks operator and deputy chairman of the Hong Kong Toilet Association, the government's one-off grant to take care of public toilets in Hong Kong is still too small and the actual results are limited.

In particular, some public toilets have been in disrepair for a long time, and it is more practical to allocate funds for reconstruction rather than successive repairs. Taking the public toilets at Changshun Street in Sham Shui Po after renovation, for example, the project cost 6.4 million yuan to renovate and reopen in 2016, but the renovation project did not take care of the "basic skills" and replaced it with new urine pockets and brand new contactless flushing After the device and faucet, the problem of leaking water pipes is still rusty. Lai Daming, a senior building inspector and technical director of Hong Kong Justice Bank, analyzed the public toilet project in Hong Kong, referring to the renovation or maintenance of the authorities or paying too much attention to the appearance and hardware, but the basic waterproofing process was not perfect.

In order to cope with public toilet facilities that have problems with the overall building structure, the government must change its maintenance policy of "seeing steps" in the past. Because the project involves leakage of underground water pipes, it is even necessary to completely remodel the public toilets, which is very costly, and the small appropriation for each time cannot meet the demand. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, in conjunction with the Architectural Services Department, shall select broken public toilets in its public toilets that have not been refurbished and have structural problems at the same time. The government will allocate funds to carry out targeted reconstruction to solve the old-fashioned roots of old public toilets and improve the Sanitary environment.

Earlier, netizens revealed that the cleaning workers needed to eat in the toilet, which caused a great response from the society. (Profile picture)

Attention to inhumane renovation work environment

Apart from the unsatisfactory refurbishment of public toilets, the audit report also found that the working environment of toilet clerks was poor. If the refurbishment of public toilets can only be exchanged for the facade, but it fails to take care of the working space of the toilet clerk, it is undoubtedly a failure.

According to the FEHD's "Public Toilet Manual", every male toilet and female toilet must provide a compartment for the clerk to provide power outlets, fans and other equipment. However, Audit audited the FEHD's records. Of the 264 public toilets providing clerk duty services, 178 were not equipped with electrical outlets, fans, or exhaust fans, and 33 did not even have duty rooms for staff. use.

The actual working environment of toilet clerks is far worse than the figures. Architectural Services Department should pay more attention to the design of duty room when renovating public toilets, and provide suitable working environment for toilet staff. In April of this year, members of the Legislative Council visited the so-called "duty room" and found that the site was full of working tools, just like a utility room. Staff could not rest at all. Some members even criticized that many outsourced workers need to eat in the harsh environment of the toilet. The treatment is extremely inhumane. The FEHD and the Architectural Services Department should pay attention to the working environment of cleaners at the same time when they follow up the renovation work of public toilets. They should also have sufficient space in the duty room, reconfigure the necessary equipment, take the lead to take care of the well-being of employees, and take the government as the employer Good role model.

Seeing Weizhi, Yi Zhizhiqiu, the government's bureaucracy reflected in such trivial matters as public toilets, relying solely on the idea of ​​sending money, can be described as the consistent style of many policies. In the long run, society will be battered. The anti-revision demonstrations and the district board elections have shown a lot of public grievances. If the government has not yet been awakened to reform and radically reform, how can Hong Kong people have hope for the future?

01 perspective

Design of public toilets

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2019-11-28

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