Sit and pee for a cleaner Earth, Taiwan tells men - PERSONA POWER

London: In a special drive in Taiwan, men will be asked to sit and urinate like women, to avoid urine spatter and maintain a clean environment.

Stephen Shen, environmental protection administration (EPA) minister in Taiwan has said that sitting on the toilet like women does create a cleaner environment, the BBC News reported.

Officials are to ask local governments this week to put up notices in public places advising men to sit.

However, the minister’s remark sparked an online debate with many women in social media websites favouring the suggestion but men saying that it would be hard to stop doing what they are used to doing, the report said.

EPA officials have insisted that it can be done. They confirmed that Shen himself practices what he suggests — at home and while using public toilets. “We want to learn from Japan and Sweden,” Yuan Shaw-jing, EPA director general of environmental sanitation and toxic substance maintenance, said. “In Japan, 30% of the men sit,” he said.

Inspectors regularly grade Taiwan’s estimated 1,00,000 public toilets, with most of receiving high marks. EPA officials said there is room for improvement, as some toilets are still smelly because of urine spatter. PTI

* Originally posted on the Times of India