If you’re a female, you’ll understand the woes of going to the washroom. More often than not, it feels like I’m queuing up for some limited edition Hello Kitty plushies.
The queue takes forever to clear, there are not enough toilet cubicles, and sometimes, the toilet runs out of toilet paper.
Sounds relatable?
Well, don’t fret, because the Hong Kong Toilet Association is aiming to resolve this issue of long waiting time faced by women.
Female Urinals To Half Peeing Time For Women
On 5 December, Thursday, an industry group called for female urinals to be built in Hong Kong’s public toilets. This is to combat the long waiting times that women experience when visiting the washroom.
According to the Hong Kong Toilet Association, the female urinals is able to cut peeing time to just 1.5 minutes. This is compared to the usual two to three minutes that women take in a cubicle.
Furthermore, the urinals will also take up only half the space of a full cubicle. This way, they are able to add more urinals to reduce queuing time.
The facilities will also include disposable paper urine funnels to help women aim accurately, as well as a shelf above for bags to be hung.
The group’s Vice-President, Henry Hung Chi Kuen, said that, “It is much more feasible to install additional female urinals than to build new cubicles, especially in smaller and older public toilets.”
Mr Hung has a 40-year career in plumbing engineering. He also raised several concerns regarding the facilities. Firstly, there was a lack of interest by universities to design such a facility. Furthermore, the group was also struggling to find organisations, such as event organisers who were willing to conduct a pilot test of female urinals in the city.
This idea came from Germany and France, where female urinals are made available in temporary lavatories at events such as music festivals. However, it is not implemented in permanent facilities.
Hong Kong’s City Toilet Falling Short Of Government’s Guidelines
According to a report from the Audit Commission, the city’s public toilet fell short of the government’s guidelines. For every public toilet compartment for men, there should be two for women. However, the ratio is found to be 1-1.3 instead.
The commission’s report also found that the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department was not repairing defects in public toilets quickly enough.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po had announced earlier in February that a HK$600 million (~S$104 million) plan was put in place to revamp 240 public toilets over five years.
However, only 48 washrooms out of the 240 have been renovated to date. Mr Hung is concerned that at this rate, it would take up to 16 years to upgrade all the toilets in the city. Hence, there is a need to speed up the process of renovation.
The toilet association recently completed an inspection on 160 public washrooms and found unsanitary levels of hygiene at some locations.
Pei Ho Street Market in Sham Shui Po had the dirtiest toilet, where the floor was slippery and had a strong odour caused by a blocked flushing system.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department stated that while public toilet renovations were ongoing, not all of them required the same level of work, such as the newly built ones.
Let’s hope that they are able to keep up with the renovation and implement these new facilities soon. If female urinals can help resolve space constraint and waiting time issues, I’m sure women will be more than happy to welcome it.
