Toilet revolution in China

Abstract

The wide-spread prevalence of unimproved sanitation technologies has been a major cause of concern for the environment and public health, and China is no exception to this. Towards the sanitation issue, toilet revolution has become a buzzword in China recently. This paper elaborates the backgrounds, connotations, and actions of the toilet revolution in China. The toilet revolution aims to create sanitation infrastructure and public services that work for everyone and that turn waste into value. Opportunities for implementing the toilet revolution include: fulfilling Millennium Development Goals and new Sustainable Development Goals; government support at all levels for popularizing sanitary toilet; environmental protection to alleviate wastewater pollution; resource recovery from human waste and disease prevention for health and wellbeing improvement. Meanwhile, the challenges faced are: insufficient funding and policy support, regional imbalance and lagging approval processes, weak sanitary awareness and low acceptance of new toilets, lack of R&D and service system. The toilet revolution requires a concerted effort from many governmental departments. It needs to address not only technology implementation, but also social acceptance, economic affordability, maintenance issues and, increasingly, gender considerations. Aligned with the ecological sanitation principles, it calls for understanding issues across the entire sanitation service chain. Public-private partnership is also recommended to absorb private capital to make up the lack of funds, as well as arouse the enthusiasm of the public.

Assessment of the faecal sludge management practices in households of a sub-Saharan Africa urban area and the health risks associated: the case study of Yaoundé, Cameroon

“…The authors pointed out that several sanitation technologies in the study area were constituted of septic tanks, traditional pit latrines, ventilated improved pit latrines and piped equipped latrines. Indeed, the results of Cheng et al (2018) working on the toilet revolution in China revealed several methods of improved sanitation technologies which are represented by septic tanks, doublevault funnel latrine, double pit alternate type, biogas-linked toilet, urine-faeces diversion latrine and integrated flushing latrine. In addition, the finding Stenström et al (2011) who assessed microbial exposure and health assessments in sanitation technologies and systems in tropical area found that open defecation is widespread in developing countries and is the most significant environmental factor involved in the transmission of sanitation-related diseases.…”

“…According to the literature, the number of latrine users could strongly affect the rate of faecal sludge accumulation in the pits of latrines as the excreta production rate per person was estimated at about 0.12 to 0.40 litre of faeces and 0.6 to 1.5 litre of urine per day (Bakare et al, 2012). In addition, the work of Cheng et al (2018) pointed out about a million tons of faecal sludge collected yearly in public toilet in urban area of China. Furthermore the study done by Gning et al (2017) in Dakar pointed out the absence of regulations by the Senegal Government in term of the cost of desludging paid by households for having access to the mechanical emptying service.…”

“…The purpose of a sanitation system is to protect and promote human health and environmental conditions (Stenström et al, 2011, Koné et al, 2016Joshua et al, 2017;Cheng et al, 2018). Provision of adequate sanitation facilities is a basic underlying factor for good human health, economic development and well-being (Verbyla et al, 2013;Tilley et al, 2014;Brown et al, 2015).…”

Limiting potential COVID-19 contagion in squatting public toilets

“…In 2019, the Chinese government allocated 7 billion RMB in upgrading rural toilet facilities [14]. The Chinese government actively supported the concept of a 'Toilet Revolution' originally proposed by UNICEF in 1997 [15]. China is a major industrialised country and most probably has the largest squatting toilet market in the world [15].…”

Sanitation approach toward resource recovery in rural and semi‐urban centers: Insight from South South Nigeria

“…In UDDT systems, feces and urine are collected separately; the urine can be diluted along with water and used as fertilizer directly, while feces are dewatered for and treated to destroy pathogens. Human excrement from this process can be used for biogas production, which is used mainly for cooking and lighting (Cheng et al., ; Simha et al., ). This toilet system is based on a technology, which has been in application for many years in some developing and developed countries, such as United States of America and China, and has been subsequently improved with a resource‐recovery approach as an important feature (Cheng et al., ).…”