Ipoh wants ‘BMW’ toilets

Super scrub: A worker cleans in the toilet of Foh San restaurant, one of the facilities rated BMW by the city council, in Ipoh, Perak. — Bernama

IPOH: The Ipoh City Council (MBI) is working towards a goal of having all public toilets located at food premises here achieve BMW (bersih, menawan, wangi; or clean, attractive and fragrant) status from next year.

Ipoh mayor Datuk Rumaizi Baharin said among the efforts made are holding engagement sessions with restaurant associations and briefings on how to upgrade toilets to the BMW standard, as well as intensifying checks and monitoring of public toilets.

“MBI has organised a cleanliness competition and offers advice and guidance to premises owners to meet the grade,” he told Bernama.

He said the steps taken were based on instructions and guidelines issued by the Local Government Department (JKT) and the Local Government Development Ministry.

In the meantime, he said the decision to impose toilet status conditions for the issuance and renewal of business licences would be reviewed based on the situation and JKT’s instructions.

“The ministry is refining and improving the implementation mechanism to ensure that food premises toilets achieve the BMW grade,” he said.

According to Rumaizi, as of June 26, a total of 592 or 66% of the 897 toilets at restaurants and eateries under MBI’s purview have been rated four stars and above.

He said that 288 compound notices totalling RM67,500 were issued under UUK 4 (1) of the Food Operators Bylaw 1981 for various offences including the cleanliness of public toilets.

“The cooperation and commitment of every restaurant and food premises owner is essential to improve the star rating from three to four stars and further meet the BMW criteria by the end of this year,” he said.

Minister Nga Kor Ming said that food and beverage premises located under city councils nationwide might not get their business licences renewed next year if their toilets do not achieve the “A” certification standard set by the ministry.

He said the decision was in line with the BMW public toilet approach that he announced in January.

Nga had expressed his hope that all 155 local authorities nationwide could establish a public toilet hygiene monitoring unit and carry out maintenance work according to schedule to ensure that every public toilet in the country are always in an orderly, clean and well-functioning condition.