In an effort to satisfy the demand of travelers and develop tourism, in mid-2016, the Hanoi People’s Committee asked the Department of Construction to join forces with the Department of Culture and Sports to give guidance to investors on building 1,000 public toilets with capital mobilized from different sources.

The toilets were to satisfy aesthetic requirements, suit the landscape, use sustainable materials, and be friendly to the environment.

This was a well-organized plan. However, after seven years of implementation, only 80 public toilets have been built under the program.

There are more than 300 public toilets in Hanoi, of which 200 were built with bricks prior to 1990 and nearly 100 others prior to 2010.

Like Hanoi, in 2016, HCM City set a goal of building 1,000 public toilets. However, to date, it has only 255. Most of the public toilets are located in the inner city, including 38 toilets in district 5 and 10-18 in districts 1 and 3.

The representatives of investors of public toilets in Hanoi and HCM City told VietNamNet that a steel-covered toilet costs just VND 150-200 million.

“We can build hundreds of toilets of this kind within a short time. However, it is not easy to find places to install hundreds of public toilets in the inner city because of the opposition of locals. That is why a plan on building hundreds of public toilets has not been completed,” they said.

Commenting about this, HCM City Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Nen stressed that the lack of public toilets is attributed to inappropriate attention of competent agencies. 

HCM City is a large urban area with 10 million people and the inaccessibility to toilets is unacceptable. HCM City Mayor Phan Van Mai said the lack of toilets must not exist in a modern and civilized city like HCM City.

In Hanoi, Hoan Kiem district alone has 50 public toilets, most of which are under the management of the URENCO Hoan Kiem Branch. 

Nguyen Huu Chien, director of URENCO Hoan Kiem said that the toilets are cleaned regularly, however, the equipment there is too old. Hanoi authorities have been aware of the problem and planned to upgrade public toilets.

National Assembly deputy Truong Xuan Cu said that if leaders don’t have strong determination, Hanoi won’t have a network of public toilets which can satisfy the demand. 

Quang Phong - Tuan Kiet - Ho Van