Hanoi to deodorize toilet stink at public schools

Hanoi's municipal government will provide funding for 2,600 schools to renovate their lavatories, the city's mayor has said.

Hanoi has pledged more funding streams for public schools and will allocate 19 percent of its budget instead of the current 12 percent to do so, Nguyen Duc Chung, the chairman of Hanoi's People's Committee, said at a meeting on Thursday to review the performance of city schools.

One real problem is the unhygienic conditions of school toilets, said the mayor. But he failed to spell out the specific amount of money the city administration would earmark in this regard.

At many schools, especially on the outskirts of Hanoi, students still have to squat over traditional Vietnamese-style toilets with no cleansing jets of water. Most bathrooms in city public schools are poorly equipped without hand basins, and stinking toilets have become a long-standing problem.

Hygiene conditions in school toilets actually affect children’s health, and some students have to put off their visits to the bathroom.

“I have heard many parents complain that school toilets are so filthy that their children have to hold off going until noon,” said the city’s mayor.

Hanoi is going to replace dilapidated toilets at about 2,600 public schools with stainless steel toilets with warm seats and a proper flushing system over the next month.

The city has set a target that by 2018 unhygienic toilets will be completely wiped off the list of problems that has plagued the city's school system for a long time.

According to Chung, with rapidly growing student numbers, Hanoi will build at least 40 more schools by late 2017, including a public elementary school on a site covering 3,000 square meters in Hoan Kiem District, one of the most densely-populated residential areas in Hanoi.