Octogenarian villagers go to the toilet outdoors at -20 °C with an iron bucket, and a toilet is installed directly opposite the stove... Recently, Xinhua News Agency reported on various chaos in the rural toilet reform in Shenyang. In the past 5 years, the government has invested more than 100 million yuan to rebuild more than 80,000 toilets and abandoned more than 50,000 toilets.
The small toilet is a mirror of social civilization. In order to improve rural public health conditions and help rural revitalization, in recent years, from the state to the local level, large sums of money have been invested to promote rural toilet reform, and only one Shenyang city has invested hundreds of millions of yuan in this between 2016 and 2020. However, judging from the situation investigated by Xinhua News Agency reporters, the rural toilet reform in some places not only did not bring benefits, but added to the blockage at the grass-roots level. The "awkward toilets" built one by one are really angry and sad. Such a toilet revolution seems to have become more of a political performance show.
Judging from the information reported by the media, the toilet reform has become tainted in some rural areas of Shenyang, exposing at least three problems:
First, the planning and construction of toilet reform has not done a good job of professional demonstration and checking. Winters in the northeast are cold, and rural heating measures are relatively insufficient, so it is obviously not appropriate to build toilets outdoors. However, in the first two years of Shenyang's rural toilet reform, the local outdoor toilet with convenient construction and low cost became the first choice for grass-roots reconstruction. When the public complained, the local toilet reform was mainly turned to indoor toilets, but there was no service guarantee arrangement such as regular cleaning of manure, resulting in farmers often "unable to afford". If it had been checked by professionals before, careful planning and scientific guidance, why toss back and forth.
Second, rural toilet reform is related to the vital interests of the people, and it is appropriate to listen to the people's ideas and pay attention to every humanized detail. However, the problem of toilet reform in some rural areas in Shenyang reflects that there seems to be no more realistic consideration of the needs and feelings of the people. This has led to the creation of strange phenomena such as toilets installed directly opposite the stove, three toilets built by a family of three, and toilets built in abandoned houses.
Third, the post-assessment and supervision mechanism of toilet reform is insufficient. After these toilets are built, it seems that no one cares whether the people are convenient and comfortable to use, and many toilets are idle and wasted after they are built, and no one cares, and the corresponding rectification is not started for a long time. As for the use of funds for toilet reform, it has also become a confused account. According to Xinhua News Agency, since 2019, the government subsidy standard for rural toilet reform in Shenyang has been 4500 yuan per indoor toilet and 3500 yuan for outdoor toilets. However, many villagers reported that the village notified that the indoor toilet reform subsidy was only 1500 yuan, and some people did not receive this money. Where did the difference in the allocation and distribution of toilet reform funds go, and whether there is rent-seeking corruption among them, I am afraid that a question mark must also be put.
In the rural areas where toilets are most scarce, a large number of "awkward toilets" have been built that peasants cannot afford and are not comfortable with, which is obviously a serious mismatch and waste of resources. Rural toilet reform is a good thing that benefits all families, but good things must also be done conscientiously and according to the rules. For the problem of toilet reform and exposure in some rural areas of Shenyang, the relevant departments need to carry out further investigation and accountability according to the media reports. More importantly, it is still necessary to improve the mechanism of rural toilet reform from planning, construction, to evaluation and supervision, truly implement the dividends of toilet reform in place, and curb the thinking of individual grass-roots officials from going through the motions and making a quick profit from political achievements.
Red Star News special commentator Yu Ping
Edited by Wang Yaotao
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