By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Visitors to national parks will now be able to use bidets in park bathrooms, however, their effectiveness is being called into question.
The Korea National Park Service (KNPS) announced Tuesday that it had installed 138 bidets in 34 public restrooms in 18 national parks nationwide.
"We have installed bidets at motor camping grounds and bathrooms at gateways," said Mun Jeong-mun of the park service. "The budget was around 23 million won."
According to the service, there were only toilet bowls or Oriental water closets in public bathrooms at national parks. With bidets currently found in about 20-30 percent of households, the service determined that bidets should be added to park restrooms.
The service also said that it would regularly monitor the facilities to check for any damage.
"We will monitor the condition of bidets, receive feedback from users and expand the installment next year if it goes well."
Six bidets were installed in restrooms at Mt. Seorak National Park last week. Four of them are at the most-used bathroom near the entrance of the park and two are in the park's campground.
The campground, a popular outdoor destination, has received conflicting viewpoints from its guests.
"Those who use bidets at home and are accustomed to them welcome the new establishment and were even surprised that national parks now have the facilities. However, some raise sanitary concerns and claim the restrooms and bidets were too dirty," said Choi Sung-soon at the campground."The janitors have to be more careful in cleaning bathrooms with bidets."
It is uncommon to find bidets at national parks in foreign countries because it is difficult to manage them. Some citizens already worry about the sanitation of public bidets.
"A bidet is not a necessity in Korean toilets and I don't see why national park toilets should have these. It won't be easy to maintain those at outdoor restrooms," said Park Jeong-sook, 53, who often goes mountain climbing.
"Moreover, I personally do not use the bidets installed at public restrooms for hygiene reasons," she said.