Walls That Fight Back Against People who Pee on Them

Before you read: some questions to help you think about the topic and the words you might need.

Is people peeing/urinating in public places a problem in your country?

Have you heard of what ways the government of your city is doing to stop people using the public places as a toilet?

A German railway station is the latest to deter people using walls as a toilet. It is doing this by using a special new paint.

It’s pee-back time: a warning sign for those who pee/urinate on outside walls in Germany are warned.

A railway station in Cologne has hit back at people who urinate in public. They have been putting up signs in one particularly bad part of the car park with the warning “the walls pee back”.

A spokesman for the German railway company said that it was deterring people who pee in public areas. And they are doing this by covering a 30-meter part of the wall with a special kind of paint that’s extremely hydrophobic.

Hydrophobic means any stream of liquid aimed at the wall will bounce back off at about the same angle. A picture on the car park wall shows this explained.

Cologne is not the first German city to use hydrophobic paint against public urination. The first was an initiative that began in Hamburg’s party area in March.

It costs about €700 to cover six square meters with repelling paint. This is causing some people to ask questions about the efficiency of doing this.

Uwe Christiansen, a board member of the St Pauli Interest Community, came up with the idea. She said it was a real annoyance that was getting bigger and bigger. People were just tired of the peeing on walls, home entrances and playgrounds.

The project’s promotional video has since had more than 5million views.

According to Ultra-Ever Dry, a paint manufacturer, an object covered with hydrophobic paint develops a surface chemistry and texture with patterns of geometric shapes that have high parts. These high parts repel water, some oils, wet concrete and other liquids.

Other cities have been thinking about using the paint technology. San Francisco covered nine walls with the paint in a pilot scheme this summer in areas around bars and other areas with large homeless populations. And during the UK general election campaign this year, Manchester council thought about using nano-tech paint to bounce back at anything sprayed at the city’s walls.

However, some were worried that people who did not expect it could be splashed by other liquids, such as rainwater from passing cars.

Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary depending on how they are used.

 The answers are below the table.

A=3, B=1, C=7, D=4, E=8, F=5, G=2, H=6

Some example sentences using the new words or phrases from the meaning of how they are used in the reading to help you understand better.

1. Failure in the banks has deterred many people from putting their money there.

2. People said she did the crime, but she hit back saying it was not true.

3. Seoul has a new initiative to get people to ride more bicycles. The pilot scheme is to let people use free bicycles on the Han River.

4. In the summer you can use this to repel mosquitoes from your house.

5. I need to come up with a new idea for an English class for next year.

6. Mr Moon is campaigning to be the new president of Korea.

7. Nano sized medical technology means in the future we will be able to see cancer cells in the body.

Some questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your answer.

1. What is your opinion about the solution the Germans have come up with?

2. What do you think we should use to deter people from doing these things in your home city or country?

3. Do you agree this is the right way to hit back at people using public areas as toilets?

4. What initiative would you recommend for your home country or city?

5. What is the best way to repel mosquitoes to your house in the summer?

6. What interesting pilot schemes do you know that your city has tried?

7. Describe any campaigns in your city or country, for example a safety campaign or a new law?

8. What nano sized technology do you think we will see in the future?