November 28, 2017
Chinese President Xi Jinping applauds –Juan Cevallos/AFP/Getty Images
Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged his citizens to march on its "revolution" of cleaning dirty and foul-smelling public bathrooms. "Toilet issues are not petty matters but an important aspect of improving infrastructure in urban and rural areas", Xi said.
This step was taken to improve quality of life and boost tourism. Toilet Revolution, as a campaign, will not only make things easy for tourists but is also beneficial for the domestic population. Apart from installing toilets at public places, the Toilet Revolution aims at improving hygiene and sanitation in public restrooms.
The campaign basically focused on increasing 'three star rated' toilets at popular tourist destinations. The "Toilet Revolution" was launched in 2015 to make public restrooms more tourist friendly. "The toilet issue is no small thing, it's an important aspect of building civilised cities and countryside. This work must be a concrete part of advancing our country's revitalisation strategy and we must make great efforts to fill these shortcomings that affect the quality of life of the masses," said Xi while speaking to People's Daily in China.
Xi, who took office in 2012, believes that the initiative will pave way for "civilised" urban and rural environment in China. The President made a point to visit rural areas and ask villagers whether they had proper sanitation or not. "In rural areas, some toilets were little more than makeshift shelters surrounded by bunches of corn stalks, and some were open pits next to pigsties," said a Chinese agency named Xinhua.
Public bathrooms in China lack toilet paper and other necessary items and it has worked against its image in terms of boosting tourism. According to National tourism administration, China is expected to upgrade more than 70,000 toilets by the end of this year. 64,000 toilets are likely to be built or improved between 2018 and 2020.
United Nations has declared 19 November as World Toilet Day. Chinese government took step further by declaring it 'China Toilet Revolution' day as well. Social media appreciated the initiative taken up the Chinese president.
Courtesy/Source: India Today
