Hong Kong’s Food and Environment Hygiene Department is putting a new broom through its sanitation program, promising on Thursday to deliver odor-free public toilets across the city with dry and clean floors within five years.
Director Vivian Lau said that “innovative technologies” would be used to improve the 240 toilets, which are being renovated under a budget of HK$600 million (US$76.5 million) announced earlier this year by Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po.
“At the public toilet at Sai Yee Street in Mong Kok we are going to use ozone in flushing water for sanitization and removing odors,” Lau said. “At the Peak and Tsuen Wan there will be a few toilets where we are going to use oxygen for deodorization, so we are using technology to decompose the odorous particles to carbon dioxide and water.”
She said hand dryers will be provided beside washbasins to avoid water being dripped on floors.
Toilets in the city are notorious for their dirty conditions and poor maintenance standards.