You know what they say, "If you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat."

In an effort to clean up Taiwan's public toilets, and to avoid "sprinkling while tinkling," the country's environmental minister has suggested that men should sit down while urinating instead of standing up.

Stephen Shen, head of the Environmental Protection Administration, said Monday that sitting on the toilet like women creates a cleaner environment and that he himself had already adopted the habit both at home and in public toilets, according to AFP.

He recommended that other men follow suit so that toilet seats will be ready for the next user.

While the agency notes that it cannot force men to change their habits, officials will ask local governments this week to put up notices in public places recommending men to sit.

The minister's suggestion has caused widespread debate, especially online, the BBC reports.

While many women in social media websites approve of the new recommendation, the men were more critical and say that it would be hard to break the habit of standing up.

"Brain-damaged politician, why doesn't the environmental bureaucrat start to wear a skirt," wrote a user on the United Daily News forum, according to AFP.

"I'd love to see Stephen Shen and (President) Ma Ying-jeou demonstrate on TV how to sit down to pee," said another user who left a message on the forum.

However EPA officials are confident that the new recommendations will be followed.

"We want to learn from Japan and Sweden," EPA director general of environmental sanitation and toxic substance maintenance Yuan Shaw-jing told BBC.

"In Japan, we heard 30% of the men sit," he added.

While inspectors often award high marks to most of the island's estimated 100,000 public toilets, EPA officials say that there is room for improvement because some toilets still have a bad smell because of urine splatter.

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