Small toilet, big people's livelihood

【People's Livelihood Observation】

On July 23, the National Rural Toilet Revolution Site Meeting was held in Hengyang. General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward new requirements for the in-depth promotion of the rural toilet revolution, emphasizing that "during the '14th Five-Year Plan' period, we must continue to regard the rural toilet revolution as an important task for rural revitalization" "Adhere to the principle of subordinating quantity to quality, progress to practical results, seeking good and not seeking speed, resolutely opposing the work of the people and hurting the money, engaging in formal appearances" and "really doing this good thing well and doing practical things".

"Small toilet, big people's livelihood". The toilet revolution is about improving the quality of life of rural residents. The toilet revolution is a major livelihood project in the countryside. Rural toilets are well managed, can reduce the occurrence of diseases, control rural pollution problems, improve the rural living environment, and effectively improve the quality of life of villagers, which is one of the important contents of measuring high-quality development.

"One small step forward, one big step forward". The toilet revolution is an important part of the integration of urban and rural development and the integration of urban and rural construction. In the early 1990s, China set off a "public toilet revolution", urban public toilets became an important part of municipal construction, and the overall situation of toilets became an important aspect of the gap between urban and rural areas.

"Toilets are the measure of human civilization." Toilet civilization is related to the literacy of citizens, but also to the image of the country and the right to development. The toilet revolution is a social problem that has accompanied the transformation of Chinese society from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization and from rural society to urban society. In the process of modernization, the improvement of toilet behavior and toilet concept reflects the transformation of civilization.

Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to the construction of rural human settlements, and the construction of rural toilets has advanced rapidly and achieved great results. Through the unified deployment and mobilization from top to bottom, a new pattern of grasping the work at the first level and grasping the implementation at the next level from top to bottom has been formed, the relevant units have closely coordinated and cooperated, the administrative management departments have made overall planning and guidance, and the work has been grasped and managed together and linked from top to bottom. Last year, on the basis of expert review and on-site verification, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and other three ministries and commissions selected 9 typical models for harmless treatment and resource utilization of rural toilet manure to further coordinate technology application and ecological protection.

Promoting the toilet revolution is a systematic project, but also a people's livelihood project, in the process of promoting will inevitably encounter a variety of practical difficulties and problems, for this, we must attach great importance to and formulate effective measures.

It is necessary to give play to the role of peasants as the main body, pay attention to adapting measures to local conditions, and give scientific guidance. To give full play to the enthusiasm and initiative of farmers, it is not only necessary to continue to strengthen the popularization of knowledge related to toilet hygiene, but also to vigorously publicize the importance and necessity of the toilet revolution. At the same time, we must pay attention to the combination of respecting the traditional customs of farmers and guiding the change of farmers' unhygienic living habits, and truly handle the people's livelihood in the hearts of farmers, which can not only improve the efficiency of the toilet revolution, but also enhance the satisfaction of farmers.

In accordance with the requirements of "adhering to the requirement of subordinating quantity to quality, progress obeying actual results, seeking good and not seeking speed, resolutely opposing the requirements of laboring the people and hurting money, engaging in formal appearances, and advancing in a down-to-earth manner", we should improve and perfect the system and mechanism for promoting the toilet revolution, and strengthen management and assessment and evaluation. Since 2019, a total of 14.4 billion yuan of central financial funds have been arranged to promote the rural toilet revolution, which has greatly changed the penetration rate of rural sanitary toilets. However, in the promotion of the toilet revolution, some areas have built for the sake of construction, changed for the sake of change, engaged in surprise construction, and pursued scale expansion. The emergence of this situation is related to the "performance project" and "quantitative project", and it is also related to the lack of scientific and reasonable implementation mechanism and supervision mechanism. To this end, on the one hand, it is necessary to improve the working mechanism of the toilet revolution, the overall coordination mechanism and the implementation of the supervision mechanism; on the other hand, it is recommended to focus on the construction of an evaluation mechanism, increase the scientific assessment dimension, and severely crack down on formalism and corruption. It is necessary to persist in seeking good and not to seek speed, solid and steady progress, adhere to quality first, and ensure that one is changed into one.

At present, rural toilets are still in the popularization stage to a certain extent, and the existing technical reserves cannot keep up with the needs of the toilet revolution. Next, we should focus on effectively responding to the challenges of "harmless treatment and resource recycling" from the perspective of technological breakthroughs. At present, there is still a lack of relevant leading enterprises in the domestic and even the world for the toilet revolution, and China should raise awareness of the station, take the toilet revolution as an opportunity to drive toilet innovation, cultivate corresponding talents, incubate corresponding enterprises, and provide Chinese solutions for the solution of the world toilet problem.

(Author: Zhang Qi, Professor Wang Haixia, Institute of Economics and Resource Management, Beijing Normal University, Associate Professor, School of Sociology, Beijing Normal University)

Source: Guangming Daily