ISE04/19-20

• Public toilets are part of community infrastructure. They are considered a basic requirement for residents and visitors. Poor quality of public toilet facilities and services is not just an issue of public health and hygiene, but also affects visitors' impression of the city. As such, many places have developed their own strategies/measures in improving the public toilet facilities and services. A well-designed public toilet is considered to be (a) clean and dry, (b) well ventilated, (c) easy to maintain, (d) carefully planned layout, and (e) handicap friendly.^{1Legend symbol denoting See Restroom Association of Singapore (2018).} In recent years, some cities have promoted the development of "smart toilets" under the smart city initiative, and attempted to make the facility outlook more stylish/creative in order to raise the city vitality.
• In Hong Kong, public toilets are mainly managed by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department ("FEHD"),^{2Legend symbol denoting FEHD manages about 800 public toilets and some 50 aqua privies (village-type dry latrines without any flushing system) in Hong Kong. See Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (2019c).} while those provided in parks and sports and recreational facilities are managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department ("LCSD").^{3Legend symbol denoting There are some 630 facilities and venues with public toilets under the management of LCSD. See Leisure and Cultural Services Department (2019).} The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department ("AFCD") is responsible for the toilet facilities provided in country parks.^{4Legend symbol denoting AFCD manages about 60 public toilets, 40 aqua privies and 120 portable toilets. See Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (2019).} Apart from public toilets, there are also other toilet facilities provided for public use in commercial buildings (e.g. shopping arcades).
• In the 2019-2020 Budget, the Financial Secretary has committed over HK$600 million for commencing the refurbishment of about 240 public toilets of FEHD by phases in the coming five years.^{5Legend symbol denoting Among them, 42 public toilets will be refurbished or facelifted in this financial year. See Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (2019a) and Food and Health Bureau (2019).} While the Legislative Council Members generally showed support to the initiative, some have suggested that the improvement exercise should cover all government-managed public toilets with greater application of technologies.^{6Legend symbol denoting See Minutes of Meeting of the Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene of the Legislative Council (2019).}
• This issue of Essentials presents an overview of management of public toilets in Hong Kong, followed by a discussion on the approaches or trends seen in various places (e.g. Singapore and Taiwan) to enhance the quality of public toilet facilities/services in terms of (a) form of management, (b) technology adoption, (c) on-going monitoring through a star-rating system, and (d) education and promotion of cleanliness.

Management of public toilets in Hong Kong

• In Hong Kong, management of public toilets mainly involves outsourcing of cleansing services to contractors and coordination for maintenance/refurbishment between government departments. For instance, the daily cleansing works and minor repairs (e.g. replacement of light bulb or light tube) are performed by the department's outsourced service contractors.^{7Legend symbol denoting FEHD staff will check whether the contractors have complied with the cleansing services contracts through site inspections, surprise checks and examination of job records. See Food and Health Bureau and Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (2019).} For repairs and maintenance works of larger scales (e.g. dilapidated ceiling painting or mal-functioned hand drier), they are normally referred to the Architectural Services Department ("ArchSD") and the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department for follow-up.
• Meanwhile, FEHD makes recommendations to ArchSD every year to renovate certain public toilets, taking into account the maintenance conditions, usage rates and locations (whether a toilet is located near a tourist attraction) of each public toilet. Nevertheless, according to the Ombudsman, there are from time to time reports by the media that some public toilets have poor hygiene conditions or are dilapidated, and damaged facilities often take a long time to repair.^{8Legend symbol denoting For instance, the Apliu Street Public Toilet in Sham Shui Po was refurbished in 2012-2013 with a project cost of HK$6.72 million. However, according to a study conducted by a local advocacy group, it was viewed the "worst" public toilet in 2018. See 香港01(2018年).} In the past three years, there were about 8 400 complaints concerning public toilets or bathhouses received by FEHD.^{9Legend symbol denoting Apart from the public toilets, there were some 30 public bathhouses under the management of FEHD. See Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (2019b and 2019e).} Nature of the complaints was often related to odour problem, inadequate ventilation and wet floor.^{10Legend symbol denoting See Minutes of Meeting of the Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene of the Legislative Council (2019).}
• Recently, FEHD has stepped up the efforts in improving public toilet services. For instance, it has engaged dedicated deep cleansing teams under the services contracts since March 2019 to perform regular deep cleansing services for public toilets with a high utilization rate or located at tourist spots.^{11Legend symbol denoting In general, each deep cleansing team comprises one supervisor-cum-driver and four cleansing workmen. FEHD plans to extend such services to all public toilets when respective street cleansing services contracts are renewed at an estimated annual expenditure of about HK$60 million. See Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (2019d).} On the other hand, there are some applications of technologies being launched on a trial basis (e.g. injecting ozonated water into the flushing system and applying Nano Confined Catalytic Oxidation technology to some toilets with an aim to abate odour and improve air quality).^{12Legend symbol denoting See Food and Health Bureau and Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (2019).} To educate the public for being civic-minded and considerate when using public toilets, it has set up some booths at prominent locations of some public toilets on trial to promote the message.
• Despite the recent efforts, the quality and services of public toilet facilities remain a cause for concern by the public and the Legislative Council Members. In particular, they are concerned about (a) poor cleansing service from the outsourced service contractors, (b) ineffective management/monitoring of FEHD, (c) limited application of technologies in public toilets, and (d) low level of civic-mindedness for the proper use of toilet facilities.^{13Legend symbol denoting See Minutes of Meeting of the Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene of the Legislative Council (2019), 東方日報(2019年) and經濟日報(2019年).} There is also a view that without addressing these issues, the sum allocated under the 2019-2020 Budget for toilet refurbishment would have limited effect in raising the overall quality of public toilets in Hong Kong.^{14Legend symbol denoting See South China Morning Post (2019a) and香港01(2019年).} Amid persistent concerns from the public, the Ombudsman has announced in May 2019 that it would conduct a direct investigation to examine the Government's management of public toilets.^{15Legend symbol denoting See Office of The Ombudsman (2019).} More recently, the Audit Commission has newly released its review report on the management of public toilets by FEHD. The report has made several recommendations to the Government, including strengthening the efforts in repairs and maintenance works, and enhancing the publicity on proper use of public toilets. ^{16Legend symbol denoting See Audit Commission (2019).}

Alternative strategy to management of public toilets

• When discussing the refurbishment of public toilets by the Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene ("FSEH") in April 2019, some Members expressed that the Government should manage the toilets with innovative thinking, and shared that some overseas places had adopted a different management approach by letting the private sector operate public toilets in return for a right to place advertisement at the facilities. On top of transferring the operating costs to the private sector, this may foster investments in the facilities and bring in new ideas from the sector, thereby improving the negative image of public toilets. In Taiwan, the Environmental Protection Administration ("EPA") introduced a programme "公廁促進認養計劃" in April 2018, inviting interested parties from different sectors (mainly private sectors) to take up development and/or operation of public toilets at prime or busy locations by capitalizing on their creativity and vitality.^{17Legend symbol denoting See行政院環境保護署：《環署推出公廁認養新模式 企業結合廣告共創多贏契機》，2018年.}
• Under the programme, interested parties can submit a proposal for participating in the management and operation of one or more highly-utilized and/or poorly-maintained public toilets.^{18Legend symbol denoting For a high-usage public toilet, the annual operating cost is reported to be about NT$1 million (HK$263,000). See蘋果日報(2018年).} In return, they can post advertisements for free to promote the corporate image/products at approved areas in the toilets. As one of the major requirements, they have to keep the toilets "clean, dry and odourless" (不濕、不髒、不臭) and achieve the highest rating "特優級" under the "公廁評鑑分級制度" (to be discussed in the next section). Within one-year, there were some 140 enterprises from different sectors (e.g. energy sector, automotive sector) participating in the programme.^{19Legend symbol denoting See行政院環境保護署：《環保署表揚公廁特優場所及發布首波企業認養成果》，2018年., 20Legend symbol denoting See行政院環境保護署：《業務概況報告暨立法計畫》，2019年.} In addition to increasing the number of highest-rated toilets, the programme also brought a unique/different outlook of public toilets under the creativity of the private sector, e.g. incorporation of green design (Figure 1) that is more visually appealing.^{21Legend symbol denoting See臺中市政府環境保護局：《翻轉老舊公廁 中市環保局邀企業認養綠美化》，2019年.}
  
  Figure 1 - Green design to a public toilet in Taichung
  
  
   Source: Official website of Taichung (2019).
  

• Indeed, Taiwan's approach to management of public toilets is largely referenced from Berlin in Germany.^{22Legend symbol denoting See行政院環境保護署：《環署推出公廁認養新模式 企業結合廣告共創多贏契機》，2018年.} Back in 1993, the Berlin government partnered with an advertising company for the development and operation of the majority of public toilets in the city.^{23Legend symbol denoting Currently, there are more than 250 public toilets in the city and over 90% are operated by the company.} While the company was responsible for the development of public toilet facilities and supply of public toilet services, it was granted the exclusive rights of advertising at public toilets (and public spaces nearby) in return.^{24Legend symbol denoting Besides, the company can impose a charge of about €0.5 (HK$4.6) for each use. See Official website of the Berlin government (2019).} This has incentivized the company to incorporate modern design to public toilets (Figure 2) and maintain a high level of service at all times. Reportedly, specialists from other countries had been invited by the company to design the toilets, and the company would arrange several inspections a day to ensure that cleaning, repairs and maintenance works of the toilets are handled timely.^{25Legend symbol denoting See人民網(2003年).} Probably reflecting the high quality of public toilet facilities/services, it was reported that there were giants (such as Apple and Audi) placing advertisements on the public toilets and even tours for visiting public toilets in the city.^{26Legend symbol denoting See經濟日報(2015年)., 27Legend symbol denoting See Official website of the Berlin government (2017).} In June 2018, the Berlin government signed another 15-year contract with the advertising company for the operation and further development of public toilets in the city. Probably in view of the ability of the advertising company to attract advertisements, under the new contract, the government will charge the company for advertising rights and bear the operating cost instead, which bring in net revenue for the government.^{28Legend symbol denoting See Official website of the Berlin government (2018).}
  
  Figure 2 - Example of a public toilet in Berlin
  
  
   Source: Official website of Berlin (2019).
  

Technology adoption to enhance the quality of public toilet facilities/services

• The quality of public toilet facilities/services can be improved through greater use of technology. At the FSEH Panel meeting in April 2019, some Members have suggested putting on trial self-cleaning toilets such as those used in Paris to help achieve efficiency and reduce the manpower resources required for performing cleansing work. Indeed, automatic public toilets ("APTs") have already existed in Paris since the 1980s. APTs are single-unit, gender-neutral toilets which are cleaned and sanitized automatically after each use.^{29Legend symbol denoting Generally, they are equipped with different service buttons (e.g. assistance or emergency) and sensor-activated functions for flushing and hand washing. Besides, they usually have a time limit ranging from 15 to 20 minutes for each usage.} Having said that, there are maintenance works required to be done manually, such as replenishment of consumables, which are currently carried out several times a week. In 2009, APTs underwent upgrading work in Paris to incorporate sustainable elements in toilet design and make it barrier free. Nowadays, there are some 430 APTs in the city (with one-third being open 24 hours a day) serving millions of users per year.^{30Legend symbol denoting According to the information of the official website, APTs served more than 15 million users in 2017. See Official website of the Paris government (2019b).} In this year, the city has allocated about €19.1 million (HK$176.7 million) for the operation of these APTs.^{31Legend symbol denoting This is based on the unofficial translation of the 2019 Budget of the city of Paris. See Official website of the Paris government (2019a).} This represented an average operating cost of HK$410,930 per APT.
• Apart from Paris, some other places have also seen increasing automation of their toilet facilities. The Mainland of China is a case in point. In 2015, it rolled out a campaign "public toilet revolution" across the territory to increase the number of public toilets and improve the sanitation of them. Following this, many cities (e.g. Guangzhou, Shanghai and Wuhan) have been strengthening their efforts in developing and upgrading public toilets. One of the moves was to upgrade the toilet facilities and develop them into "smart toilets" with high-tech features as part of the smart city initiative. For example, in Guangzhou, apart from the installation of sensor-activated user facilities (e.g. toilet paper dispensers), some other advanced technologies are being applied to upgrade the public toilets, including the implementation of an automatic air purifier system, automatic odour detection/removal system and light adjustment system using solar energy.^{32Legend symbol denoting See 廣州日報(2019年).} According to the official information, a maintenance cost ranging from RMB70,000 (HK$82,985) to RMB80,000 (HK$94,840) was saved annually for some toilets after the upgrade.^{33Legend symbol denoting Ibid.}
• To enhance user experiences, some of the public toilets in Guangzhou have also installed an information panel (Figure 3) at the entrance showing the real-time status of the toilet (e.g. air quality inside the toilet and number of toilet cubicles being occupied), and provide other supplementary services such as mobile phone charging and wifi connection. In particular, Guangzhou has developed an official mobile application for the public to check the usage status of public toilets and to leave comments on the toilet services.^{34Legend symbol denoting See廣州市人民政府：《廣州市城市管理和綜合執法局關於廣州市第十五屆人大四次會議第20192138號代表建議答覆意見的函》，2019年.} While the introduction of smart toilets is a trend throughout the major cities, there are concerns about the privacy issues. For instance, in Shanghai, some smart toilets have installed a sensor system which will alert the toilet manning staff if it detects that a user has stayed in a toilet compartment for over 15 minutes.^{35Legend symbol denoting See South China Morning Post (2019b).} Although the function aims to prevent accident or crime, some users reportedly feel not so comfortable with the arrangement.
  
  Figure 3 - Information panel of a smart public toilet in Guangzhou
  
  
   Source: Official website of Guangzhou (2019).
  

Implementation of a star-rating system

• Properly managed public toilets often help project a good image of the city. Some places have therefore introduced a rating system to drive service improvement. For example, in Singapore, with the support of National Environment Agency ("NEA") (the statutory board to oversee the cleaning of public areas), the non-profit organization Restroom Association of Singapore ("RAS") has been implementing the Happy Toilet Programme since July 2003 to rate the government-owned toilets as well as those open for public use, such as Mass Rapid Transit stations, shopping centres and tourist attractions.^{36Legend symbol denoting Currently, there are over 1 200 toilets being rated under the programme.}
• Under the voluntary star-grading scheme, qualified assessors of RAS will evaluate the quality of toilets based on five areas, namely design, cleanliness, maintenance, effectiveness and satisfaction.^{37Legend symbol denoting See Restroom Association of Singapore (Undated).} Those which attain minimum standards are labelled as Clean Restroom with a three-star rating, and those achieving the highest standards are labelled as Magnificent Restroom with a six-star rating.^{38Legend symbol denoting There are specified standards for each toilet rating. For example: (a) a three-star toilet ("Clean Restroom") must be equipped with basic amenities and maintain reasonably dry floor and facilities; (b) a four-star toilet ("Good Restroom") must meet the additional requirement of possessing user-friendly facilities with special delights (e.g. diaper changing station); (c) a five-star toilet ("Premium Restroom") must meet the additional requirement of adopting eco-friendly facilities; and (d) a six-star toilet ("Magnificent Restroom") must feature technology adoption to increase productivity and efficiency (e.g. automated feedback system and odour monitoring) with the provision of qualified cleansing attendants, on top of meeting the five-star rating standards.} Once graded, the toilets will have the certification of quality with 12 months' validity^{39Legend symbol denoting Having said that, mystery assessment will be performed by trained volunteer assessors during the validity period of the certificate and the certificate would be removed in the event of failure in the second mystery audit.} and the grade will be shown on the website of RAS as well as the smartphone application of NEA. Currently, over 80% of them are graded as four-star or above.^{40Legend symbol denoting See Restroom Association of Singapore (2019a).} Citizens in Singapore seem to be happy with the quality of public toilet facilities/services. According to a survey conducted by RAS in 2016, almost 90% of respondents rated Singapore as having the cleanest public toilets in Southeast Asia.^{41Legend symbol denoting See Restroom Association of Singapore (2016).}
• Similarly in Taiwan, EPA has put in place a rating system "公廁評鑑分級制度" which not only covers government-owned public toilets but also those open for public use including toilets at underground stations and shopping centres.^{42Legend symbol denoting See行政院新聞傳播處：《優質公廁推動計畫》，2017年.} Different from the scheme of Singapore, it adopts a three-point rating system to classify all the managed toilets based on the inspection from local environment agencies, with the top rating being "特優級", the second "優等級", and the third "普通級". Those classified as failure will not be given any rating. Rated annually, toilets with lower rating will be inspected by them more frequently.^{43Legend symbol denoting See行政院環境保護署：《全面提升優質公廁精進計畫》，2018年.} For toilets without any rating, the operators might be in breach of the Waste Disposal Act and subject to a fine ranging from NT$1,200 (HK$316) to NT$6,000 (HK$1,416) per day if the hygiene conditions have not been improved before the specified deadline. As at 2016, 99% of toilets open for public use had achieved the second best rating "優等級" or above. To ensure that the official rating reflects the actual status of the toilets and promote public participation, EPA launched a two-month campaign in April 2019 to allow members of the public to rate and evaluate the toilets separately.^{44Legend symbol denoting See行政院環境保護署：《環保署公布「如廁EASY 巡(尋)拿好禮」評比結果及中獎名單》，2019年.} According to EPA, the results were largely similar to the official ratings, with 98% of toilet facilities receiving the best or second best rating.

Education and promotion of cleanliness

• While proper management of public toilets is of utmost importance, the quality of toilet services and facilities is hard to maintain if toilet users do not use them in a respectful way. As such, civic-mindedness on toilet hygiene is equally vital in upkeeping cleanliness of public toilets. Against this, Singapore has devoted efforts to educate the public about proper etiquette of using toilets as early as from their childhood. In 2015, RAS launched the "Happy Toilets @ Preschools" programme with the production of a teaching handbook to encourage preschools to teach students about good habits of using toilets.^{45Legend symbol denoting See Restroom Association of Singapore (2015).} Similar education programme was also designed for primary and secondary schools where students are encouraged to engage in projects such as decorating the toilets in their schools and creating related education material such as posters, videos and games in an attempt to build a positive awareness on restroom etiquette.^{46Legend symbol denoting See Restroom Association of Singapore (2019b).}
• It is also noted that RAS has published a guidebook entitled "A Guide to Better Public Toilet Design and Maintenance" to provide toilet owners/operators with guidance on various aspects when designing and maintaining toilet facilities.^{47Legend symbol denoting See Restroom Association of Singapore (2018).} Specifically, on the part of user education, it is suggested that the education message placed at toilets should be simple to understand regardless of readers' educational level, eye-catching and easy to remember, and be strategically displayed at the spot where the problem behaviour occurs. Besides, RAS, with the support of NEA, has been organizing the Let's Observe Ourselves Award annually since 2009 to recognize those who have contributed to maintaining or promoting the cleanliness of toilets in Singapore.^{48Legend symbol denoting See Restroom Association of Singapore (2009).} Besides awarding corporations (e.g. toilet owners, operators and cleaning contractors) with good practices, it also awards individuals who have made contributions, such as providing initiatives or valuable feedback that have contributed to restroom enhancement.

Concluding remarks

• Ensuring public toilet facilities hygienic, clean, safe and decent is critical to providing a livable community to citizens and leaving a good impression on visitors. As such, many places have sought to improve/upgrade their toilet facilities and services on various fronts. For example, Taiwan and Berlin have tried a different management approach by letting the private sector operate certain public toilets located in prime areas in return for an advertising right, which have incentivized the managing companies to invest in or modernize toilet facilities. Besides, various Mainland cities are increasingly applying technologies to turn conventional toilet facilities into smart toilets under the smart city initiative. Apart from strengthening hardware, Singapore and Taiwan have put in place a star-rating system for on-going monitoring that helps drive service improvement. The former has also put efforts to promote civic-mindedness by launching various education programmes for different target groups. All these may provide a useful reference for Hong Kong in charting its way on improving public toilet facilities and services.

Prepared by Kent CHUNG
Research Office
Information Services Division
Legislative Council Secretariat
28 November 2019