China has a problem with, of all things, toilet paper. Citizens have been caught using too much of it or just downright stealing them straight out of public restrooms.
Guess what’s the Chinese government’s controlling measure? The Chinese government installed facial recognition toilet paper dispensers. Toilet users will need to scan their faces for dispensers to issue out 90cm of toilet paper. If the user wants more toilet paper, they will need to wait 9 minutes and scan their face once again.
Image credit: China News
Now you might think that this is the stupidest thing you have ever heard, but it has proven to keep public toilets clean as well as reduce toilet paper wastage. Prior to this, restrooms used 14 rolls of toilet paper per day. Now, that number has been reduced to only 4 rolls per day.
The first of these dispensers were installed in back in 2017. Soon after, restrooms all over China adopted this method or another to control public restroom abuse. Some toilets have sensors to measure ammonium levels and dispenses a deodorizer when needed. A few are installed with alarms that will go off when you spend too much time in the toilet room. One might feel that this interferes with your privacy when using the toilet, but hell, I appreciate a clean toilet just as much as the next person.
We may need this too in Zim
This movement to improve the conditions of public restrooms is thanks to China’s president Xi Jinping, who started the “Toilet Revolution” back in 2015. Don’t you think Zimbabwe needs this kind of revolution too? Our public toilets are a mess, literally a mess. Not only will you not find toilet paper but even water to wash your hands.
Although some of the blame falls on the City Council for failing to maintain the toilets, a significant part of the blame falls on us (vandalizing, stealing toilet paper and some other stuff I don’t want to say lest you are eating). I’m particularly interested in this solution where you are allotted time to use the toilet and after some time an alarm sets off. Maybe that way, the vandals or those hygienic beings won’t have time to desecrate the toilets.
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2 comments
hahaha i would love to see how that will go here in Harare.
How I long for a clean public toilet or even when you stop at a garage. They are always filthy. Does one not believe in hygiene in this country? Gone are those days!