HCMC opens two public restrooms on prime land

The restrooms on Le Duan and Hai Ba Trung Streets in District 1 cost nearly VND1 billion ($42,650) and were paid for by Tien Phong Environment Technology JSC.

A representative of the business said the toilet kiosks were easy to dismantle when in need of relocation, once projects in these prime areas start.

A public restroom opens at a prime land lot on Hai Ba Trung Street, District 1, HCMC, May 6, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Ha Giang

District 1 has also planned to set up public restrooms in three other similar plots on Nguyen Hue and Nguyen Trung Truc Streets.

HCMC has 255 public restrooms and officials have spent years addressing a shortage.

District 1, which has a high density of residents as well as offices and tourists, recently managed to persuade more than 100 coffee shops and restaurants to open their restrooms to the public to alleviate the local shortage.

A file photo of the land plot covering numbers 2, 4 and 6 of Hai Ba Trung Street in HCMC’s center. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa

Actions to increase HCMC’s public restrooms came after the city and Hanoi were ranked near the bottom in a global ranking of public toilet density of 69 cities by QS Supplies, a U.K. bathroom wholesaler and retailer.

They have only 0.01 public toilets available per square kilometer, higher only than the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Paris topped the ranking, with the French capital having seven per square kilometer, followed by Sydney (3.64) in Australia and Zurich (2.9) in Switzerland.