Public bathroom users with bad aim will now be given fines in Shenzhen, China.

Public bathroom users with bad aim will now be given fines in Shenzhen, China.

In an effort to clean up the city’s rest rooms, its government announced that “such uncouth use of a public toilet” would be punishable by a charge of about 16 dollars.

As well intentioned as it is, the action has been met with a great deal of criticism, primarily on one of China’s more popular social media sites.

One poster quipped that the move would create jobs at a rate of 20 per toilet.

Another joked that they’ll have to hire a civil servant to stand behind every urinating person to supervise.

In one of the more thoughtful comments, an individual pondered the point of making rules that couldn’t be implemented.

A commentary published in the Beijing Times asked why a law needs to be made for a matter that "can be simply guided by social consensus".

All joking aside, many cities in China do historically have a problem with the cleanliness of their public restrooms.

In fact, in some smaller towns they really do have to hire workers to check up – and often mop up - after each user.