A public restroom installed and used for free in HCM City’s District 1. — VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Giang

HCM CITY — Two more public restrooms opened last week in downtown HCM City to alleviate the shortage in the busy area, serving both local residents and tourists.

The new restrooms are located on Lê Duẩn and Hai Bà Trưng streets in District 1.

They cost around VNĐ1 billion (US$42,450) and were installed by Tiên Phong Environment Technology JSC.

Hoàng Đức Tiến Hưng, deputy Chief Executive Officer of the company, said the restrooms are made of stainless steel, with an automatic door sensor.

The processes of treating human waste all are handled automatically and based on advanced technologies.

Probiotics are used to treat waste to reduce the bad smell and limit the spread of bacteria to humans and the environment.

The restrooms will be regularly monitored and maintained, and cleaned daily.

They are also equipped with anti-theft devices that are directly connected to the phone number of the company's maintenance team and District 1’s civil defense force.

“This model will contribute to promoting tourism and urban development towards green and sustainable growth and building a smart and modern city,” he said.

Other public restrooms are expected to be installed in the city, he said.

Dương Thanh Bình, deputy head of Urban Management Department under the District 1 People’s Committee, said the public restrooms are installed without a fixed structure on land managed by the city.

“They are easy to dismantle if we need to relocate them,” he said.

The district plans to install three more public restrooms on Nguyễn Huệ and Nguyễn Trung Trực streets.

Earlier, District 1 authorities called on local businesses to allow the public to use their restrooms for free.

Some 100 local businesses have offered free restroom use to the public.

Most of the 18 public restrooms in the district have been degraded.

The district has completed the repair and renovation of the degraded public restrooms at Bến Thành, Dân Sinh and Tân Định markets and Phong Châu Park.

It also plans to build additional public restrooms and new mobile ones.

The city only has 255 public restrooms at parks, markets, bus stations, and residential areas.

The city is taking actions to increase the number of public restrooms after it is ranked near the bottom in a global ranking of public restrooms density of 69 cities by QS Supplies, a U.K. bathroom wholesaler and retailer.

It has only 0.01 public restrooms available per square kilometer, higher only than the Egyptian capital Cairo.

The French capital Paris tops the ranking, with seven per square kilometre, followed by Sydney in Australia with 3.64 and Zurich in Switzerland with 2.9. — VNS