User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in Malaysia

Public toilets in Malaysia, found at a rate of around two per 100,000 people are often dirty, poorly maintained and broken. Culturally, many people believe it is the job of others to keep public toilets clean. There is a mix of sit and squat toilets, and they are often found at car parks and petrol stations.

Public toilets
jamban means toilet in Malay.

A 2021 study found there were two public toilets per 100,000 people. Public toilets are located in a variety of places, including in car parks and petrol stations. The South African website, The Travel Manuel, ranked Malaysia's public toilets as the worst in the world in 2017. Many people avoid the use of public toilets because they were not clean. In places where there are sit toilets, the seats would often crack because people would put their feet on them to squat defecate. Even with public flush toilets, many people would not flush their poop. Public toilets often had clogged sinks and drains, flush mechanisms that did not function and broken pipes. Self-cleaning toilets were beginning to be introduced in Malaysia in 2017.

Public toilets on Google Maps in 2017 often had reviews that decried the state of said toilets. Culturally in the 2010s, many Malaysians did not believe that maintaining cleanliness in public toilets was their problem. If they left a public toilet dirty, they did not feel an obligation to clean it as they believed that was some one else's problem to deal with.

In Malaysia, around a third of public toilets are often squatting toilets and the remaining are sitting toilets. This is done to accommodate the different toilet use preferences. Western style sit toilets are more popular among the emerging middle and upper class around the world.

Almost every household in Malaysia had toilet facilities and adequate sanitation in 2017.

Regional and global situation impacting public toilets in Malaysia
Around 2.5 billion people around the world in 2018 did not have access to adequate toilet facilities. Around 4.5 billion people lacked access to proper sanitation. ASEAN developed a plan in 2002 that they asked to be implemented in member countries to expand public toilet access across the countries it represents. The goal was in part to help expand tourist infrastructure and improve regional economics. Around 675 million people in South Asia practiced open defecation in 2016. This was more than any other region in the world.

Many schools around the world in 2018 did not have toilets, with the problem particularly acute in parts of Africa and Asia. Only one in five primary schools on earth had a toilet and only one in eight secondary schools had public toilets.

Public toilet access has been used intentionally in South Asia to exclude certain segments of the population from participating in public life. Western public toilet standards including privatization and limited opening hours disadvantage women when implemented in countries in the Far East.

In many places in rural Asia, having toilets in a house is considered unclean. As a result, toilets are often located outside the main building for a residence or people practice open defecation because of a lack of toilet access in their homes.

Toilets can often be found on more modern long distance buses in Asia. For shorter trips or on older buses, they are much less common. Where toilets are not available on long distance buses, buses often make stops for toilet breaks. Sometimes the stops are in open fields. Many youth hostels and hotels catering to backpackers in Asia do not provide toilet paper. Toilet paper and flush toilets were introduced relatively recently in many parts of Asia. They often are not found in public toilets, and may only be found in hotels catering to international guests and wealth clients. Across Southeast Asia in places where Western style flush toilets are found, many do not have toilet seats. These toilets may also not automatically flush, requiring manual flushing.