In China town,watch before you pee or get penalised

People with a poor aim will be fined if they miss their mark when using public toilets in Shenzhen.

People with a poor aim are to be fined if they miss their mark when using public toilets in a Chinese city,officials said provoking online derision over how the rule will be enforced.

The penalty will apply to those who urinate outside the bowl of facilities in Shenzhen,the southern boom town neighbouring Hong Kong,although draft regulations did not specify a minimum quantity of spillage required to be classed as a violation.

Such uncouth use of a public toilet will be fined $16 by authorities from next month,a city government official told AFP Tuesday.

Story continues below this ad

Users of Chinas rumbustious Weibo social networks poured scorn on the measures,raising the prospect of hordes of toilet inspectors being deployed to inspect performance.

A number of new civil servant positions will be created. There will be a supervisor behind every urinating person to see whether the pee is straight, wrote one Weibo user.

Another added,Very good measures. I expect they can create 20 jobs on average for every public toilet.

The measures have also provoked more considered debate,with one user arguing,Its better to have no rule than a rule that cannot be implemented.

Story continues below this ad

The law should maintain the most basic restraint about the peoples private life, wrote Shu Li,a legal worker.

The Beijing Times carried a commentary calling into question the necessity of making a law on something that can be simply guided by social consensus.

Officials with the department responsible for rules could not immediately be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.

Chinese toilet discipline can be notoriously wayward,with pictures of people defecating in public sometimes appearing on Weibo network.