More accessible and hygienic, the promises of the new public toilets in Paris

Four elected officials from the town hall and Jean-Charles Decaux, general director of the eponymous group, present Wednesday with the press in front of a toilet on rue de Rivoli: the scene "can have a ridiculous aspect", recognized the PS mayor of Paris Center, Ariel Weil.

But access to this “everyday tool, which meets emergency needs, basic needs”, is also an issue of “solidarity”, underlined the first deputy PS Emmanuel Grégoire.

In a city as dense and visited as Paris, "last year, 17 million people used" the current model, underlined Mr. Decaux, for whom the objective is to reach "more than 20 million this year " with the gradual deployment of the new model.

Their installation, which has already started "on all the Olympic Games sites", will last until March 2025 at a rate of around 10 toilets per week, specifies the street furniture giant in a press release.

The water consumption of the new sanitary facilities will be "reduced by two thirds" and that of electricity "reduced by a third", promised Jean-Dominique Hietin, the operator's Paris director.

In addition to a drinking fountain, the new toilets will be fully equipped with contactless buttons and therefore “more hygienic”, he specifies.

Above all, the automatic washing time divided by three - 30 seconds instead of 1 minute 30 - and the integration of a urinal with door on the other side of the cabin will allow a "reception capacity multiplied by four", advances the deputy (EELV) for roads David Belliard.

Paris will have "by far the world's first network of automatic toilets in the public domain of a city", underlines JCDecaux.

Free and accessible 24 hours a day, the toilets represent a maintenance cost, entrusted to the operator, of one million euros per month for the town hall, the PS deputy for cleanliness Antoine Guillou told AFP. .