The evolution of village public toilets
To date, there are over 800 public toilets managed by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) scattered throughout Hong Kong. In addition to those in urban areas, most villages in the New Territories have their own public toilets to serve residents and visitors. These rural toilets are typically far smaller than their urban counterparts. Moreover, due to previously underdeveloped sewerage infrastructure in rural areas, most of these were simple, rudimentary dry latrines (also called “aqua privies”). However, times have changed. Over the last few decades, the government has progressively upgraded these dry latrines to flush systems, incorporating modern features in the process.
Hong Kong’s public toilets date back to the cholera outbreaks of 1865-1866. The rampant epidemic prompted the colonial government at the time to provide public toilets in urban areas to ensure public hygiene. After World War II, Hong Kong’s rural areas experienced a population boom while squatter settlements sprang up on the edges of urban areas. To address the sanitation needs of grassroots residents, the Housing Department (which was then responsible for squatter areas), along with the Urban Services Department and New Territories Services Department, started to build public toilets in squatter areas and in villages. The Urban Services Department’s first two dry latrines were established on the small islands of Kat O and Tap Mun.
Also in the 1950s and 1960s, charitable organizations and churches, funded by the Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere (CARE), established cottage resettlement areas across the New Territories to house refugees or disaster victims. Although these housing areas were basic, they included public toilets to serve residents’ daily needs.
In the early days of building rural public toilets, the Urban Services Department would negotiate with villagers to choose a suitable site. As a result, public facilities like toilets or refuse collection points were sometimes built on private land, which would have to be returned to the owner when decommissioned. To use unleased land belonging traditional clan landholding organizations called Tso and Tong (“Tso/Tong” 祖堂), the government had to obtain approval from the Tso/Tong members along with a letter of consent from the Tso/Tong manager. While this arrangement was convenient at the time, it sowed the seeds of future land ownership disputes during reconstruction.
Old style village toilet before refurbishment in the 1980s. Source: Public Records Office, Government Records Service.
A dry toilet in Ngau Tam Mei West which retained its 1980s design. It has been demolished since this picture was taken in October 2025, and is scheduled to be rebuilt. Photo credit: Ng Cheuk Hang, 2025.
Historically, many villages lacked proper sewerage and water supply systems, so early village toilets were mostly aqua privies/dry latrines. Dry latrines sat over an underground septic tank into which urine and faeces dropped to decompose anaerobically. The decomposition process would significantly reduce the volume of waste. The liquid would filter through a soakage pit before being discharged into the subsoil, while the remaining solid waste would be pumped out and disposed of by vacuum tanker trucks or even boats. Since septic tanks needed to be installed underneath, the toilets themselves had to be raised up slightly so that entering one required climbing up a few steps.
Due to geographical constraints, village public toilets were generally small, with only one or two stalls. The earliest facilities were mostly simple concrete or brick boxes with narrow entrances for men and women located on the left and right sides of the structure, respectively. The external walls were often painted green. Beginning in the 1980s, some of these old public toilets were tiled to improve their appearance, and washbasins were added near the entrances. However, lacking flushing systems, the septic tanks were directly exposed to the air, and so for years they were criticized for stinking to high heaven and breeding flies and mosquitoes.
In a dry toilet, waste is deposited directly into the pit. The stall is relatively small, too. Photo credit: Ng Cheuk Hang, 2025.
In the 1990s, the then Regional Council considered replacing dry toilets with vacuum toilets, but the plan was not fully implemented due to cost concerns. Following the disbandment of the Regional Council in 1999, the FEHD took over the management of most public toilets in rural areas. Later, in 2006, the Housing Department transferred responsibility for squatter control, including public toilets in squatter areas, to the Lands Department.
After the SARS outbreak in 2003, the government proposed a phased programme to convert rural aqua privies into flush toilets. At the time, Hong Kong still had approximately 550 dry toilets, mostly in villages in the New Territories and the outlying islands. This programme started in 2005 and rolled out in seven phases, completing the conversion of 441 toilets by 2014. Some of these facilities were refurbished on-site, while others were relocated and rebuilt.
These upgraded toilets featured a noticeably different exterior design than their predecessors: the old green tiled walls were replaced with greyish white exteriors, and the roof vents were revamped to allow more natural light into the facilities. These toilets were connected to public sewers wherever possible, otherwise a holding tank was installed to replace the old septic tanks, or a biological treatment system was adopted to improve waste decomposition and address odour issues. Most conversions ended up using the bio-treatment approach.
Siu Sau Tsuen Public Toilet after renovation. Photo credit: Ng Cheuk Hang, 2025.
Since 2015, architectural design upgrades to rural toilets have become more diverse. For example, the Siu Sau Tsuen Public Toilet, which was rebuilt the same year, combined the public toilet with a refuse collection point into one avant-garde building, which the authorities have likened to a “mini opera house”. In addition to a full flush system, it incorporated many modern features such as a ventilation system, sensor-activated flushing, child-height washbasins and urinals, as well as sensor-type toilet seat sanitizers. Most village public toilets renovated during this period, including the Siu Sau Tsuen facility, added significant amounts of electronic sensing equipment.
The government has focused its attention on upgrading public toilets in rural tourist hotspots. A prime example is the 2023 Lai Chi Wo Eco-Smart Public Toilet, spearheaded and funded by the Countryside Conservation Office. It is equipped with an air-purification system and a solar-glass roof that generates renewable energy to offset the toilet’s carbon emissions.
Lai Chi Wo Eco-Smart Public Toilet. Photo credit: Ng Cheuk Hang, 2025.
Nonetheless, not every public toilet conversion has proceeded smoothly. While most sit on government land, a few—like the one in Shui Tau Tsuen, Kam Tin—are on private plots. The public toilet in Shui Tau Tsuen was built in the 1960s after the Tang clan’s Tso/Tong manager lent the land to the government with the clan members’ consent. Its external facade was refurbished in the 1990s, but it remains a dry latrine to this day. The reason for this is because after the previous Tso/Tong manager passed away, a successor has yet to be elected, making it impossible to obtain the consent required for renovation. Thus Shui Tau Tsuen’s toilet upgrade has been unable to proceed.
Shui Tau Tsuen Public Toilet, built on the ancestral land of the village. Photo credit: Ng Cheuk Hang, 2025.
Many village public toilets in the New Territories are now underused, with some serving fewer than 100 users a day. Aside from local villagers, taxi drivers are likely the primary users of these remote facilities. With the widespread adoption of online maps and navigation apps, these public toilets, which are listed as government facilities, have acquired a secondary purpose as rural navigational landmarks.
As of 2025, 27 aqua privies across Hong Kong remain unrenovated or unrebuilt, with some projects delayed due to unresolved land ownership issues. Yet with rising public demand for better hygiene and villages uprooted by the Northern Metropolis development, these old pit latrines are expected to be gradually replaced by modern flush toilets.
Audit Commission, “Report No. 73: Planning, Provision and Management of Public Toilets – Chapter 1”, 28 October 2019.
Legislative Council Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene, “Progress of Conversion of Aqua-privies into Flushing Toilets” [LC Paper No. CB(2)407/03-04(05)], Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 25 November 2003.
Legislative Council Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene, “Conversion of Aqua Privies into Flushing Toilets – Phase 7 (the Final Phase)” [LC Paper No. CB(2)187/10-11(05)], Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 9 November 2010.
Legislative Council Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene, “Progress of Conversion of Aqua-privies into Flushing Toilets” [LC Paper No. CB(2)206/11-12(07)], Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 8 November 2011.
Siu, Lap Ting Nicole, “The Heritage of Public Hygiene: Establishing Hong Kong’s Public ToiletCum-Bathhouse as an Inclusive and Community-Based Cultural Heritage”, MSc Thesis, The University of Hong Kong, 2020.
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