City rules limit flies in public toilets

Nanchang, capital of East China's Jiangxi province, recently joined Beijing as the latest city to limit the number of flies in its public toilets - on paper at least.

Nanchang's sanitation guidelines state that there should be no more than three flies in any public toilet. The regulation was passed in August 2011 but it caught the media attention recently after Beijing limited the number to two in a May 21 regulation.

In addition, Nanchang ruled that infrastructure in public toilets should be maintained properly, and the environment should be kept clean and tidy.

However, not all public toilets in Nanchang are managed in line with the regulation, Jiangnan City Daily reported on May 24.

In a public toilet in Qingshan Road in Nanchang, the report said, there were a lot of flies in it, and the number was "obviously more than three".

Besides, it was very dirty in the toilet and the facilities had been damaged.

Such a phenomenon is not rare among public toilets in the city, according to the report.

Wang Qin, a college student born in the 1990s in Nanchang, said the regulation should be fully implemented.

"The cleanliness of public toilets reflects the level of civilization and management skills of a city," the report cited Wang as saying.