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RAS announces nomination details for inaugural LOO
Awards 2009
 Following the successful
launch of the LOO Campaign last year, RAS will further reinforce its four
pronged approach – Committed toilet owners & operators, trained
toilet cleaners, responsible toilet users and recognition –
(especially the fourth approach) by initiating the LOO Awards to recognise
any organisations or individuals who have contributed to help Singapore
achieve a world recognised standard of restroom cleanliness. Nominations
for LOO Awards 2009 are open on 18th June and will close on 30th
September. Results will be announced on 19th November, in
conjunction with World Toilet Day. A total of 22 awards will be presented
at the LOO Awards Ceremony on 2nd December during the networking
dinner at the World Toilet Summit & Expo. Of the 22 awards, four awards
– Best National Environment Agency Regional Office, Community
Development Council, Eco-Assessor and Volunteer - will be nominated by RAS.
There are altogether three categories namely
Organisation, Cleaning Industry and Individual. Organisations (Toilet
Owners & Operators) will be judged in terms of restroom designs, good
practices such as recognition, best sourcing, etc, initiatives or projects
in line with restroom cleanliness & maintenance, participation in RAS
programmes or activities and collaborations with RAS. The Cleaning Industry
comprising of cleaners and contractors, will be judged on good practices
adopted by the contractors such as helping cleaners to upgrade their
skills, providing the right equipment for the cleaners, taking care of
cleaners’ welfare, etc while cleaners will be judged on their
dedication and commitment. The Individual category is meant for committed
individuals who have implemented initiatives or projects in line with
restroom cleanliness & maintenance, participated in RAS programmes or
activities and provided valuable feedback that have contributed to the
enhancement of restrooms.
[Nominate
Now]
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RAS launches LOO
Map
In conjunction
with our Happy Toilet Programme (HTP), we launched our LOO Map –
visit www.toilet.org.sg to view the
map – which is an online map locator of our star-rated Happy Toilets
in the five districts – Central, North East, North
West, South East and South West – of Singapore. The LOO Map will
serve its purpose of encouraging more toilet owners and existing Happy
Toilet owners to participate in our HTP and continue their commitment to
joining HTP respectively. It will also provide handy information for local
and foreign visitors – a tourist sent us an email in November last
year requesting a list of clean toilets before his visit to Singapore
– looking for locations of clean toilets.
Similar to most online map locators, visitors
can easily mouse over any of the  five
districts shown on the map of Singapore for the number of
Happy Toilets and click on the map for more information. Take for instance,
users who mouse over the Central district will see the region lighting up
and a legend box popping up to reveal the number of Happy Toilets in the
Central district. When users click on the map, it will bring them to the
exact locations of the Happy Toilets in the Central district.
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RAS consolidates
findings and recommendations from the Inter Agencies Working Committee
(IAWC) members
After
the introduction of the three new sub-committees (Owners and Operators,
Cleaners and Contractors, and Users) at the second IAWC meeting on 11th
February, each sub-committee has been actively holding bi-monthly meetings
to discuss and brainstorm for innovative solutions. The Owners and
Operators sub-committee members were updated on our Happy Toilet Programme
(HTP), LOO Awards, Building & Construction Authority (BCA) restroom designs
and latest restroom products and services. Apart from information updates,
the members were very active in providing findings and proposing
recommendations on the cleanliness of toilets.
 The
Contractors and Cleaners sub-committee members have also been updated about
our HTP and the Restroom Training Specialist Course (RSTC) conducted by World Toilet College.
The members also devised a possible provision of insignia for uniforms worn
by toilet cleaners. A pilot training programme with a Town Council will
also be conducted and evaluated by October. The Users sub-committee have
been focusing on the means of inculcating good toilet etiquette among the
young with one of the sub-committee members, the South West Community
Development Council, planning to launch a photo gallery of clean school
toilets in their district. The sub-committee aims to extend their reach to
all schools - especially those who have not participated in our Happy
Toilet School Education Programme - to participate in our new school education
programme on toilet cleanliness and hygiene. The next meeting on 8th
July will see all the three sub-committees coming together to share their
findings and recommendations.
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RAS conducts
first educational talk for foreign workers
It
all began with an invitation from City Developments Limited (CDL) extended
to RAS to conduct an introductory speech to their contractors and
consultants at their 5-Star Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS)
Seminar on 10th June. The seminar aimed at influencing their
contractors and consultants to adopt best EHS practices. Our Happy Toilet
Programme (HTP) was the next  initiative
they would like to embark across their project sites to promote cleanliness
of the toilets and good toilet etiquette amongst their site staff and
workers. RAS was thus invited to share more about their programmes and
initiatives particularly the HTP.
After
the CDL seminar, a contractor expressed interest to schedule educational
talks for its foreign workers from two CDL condominium sites. The first
talk was conducted at the site of Quayside Condo @ Sentosa
Cove on 22nd June with about 400 foreign workers from India,
China, Thailand and Philippines briefed on the dos and don’ts of
toilet practices. They were also urged to start practising good toilet
etiquette so as to qualify their site toilets to at least meet our HTP
3-star rating. The second similar talk was conducted at the site of The Arté at Jalan Datoh on 25th June.
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RAS awards Happy
Toilet certification to all the toilets of 888 Plaza
RAS
is collaborating with The National Environment Agency North West Regional
Office (NWRO), North West Community Development Council (NWCDC) and North
West Grassroots organisations (GROs) to target
toilet cleanliness in the North West District. A district wide CLEAN
Toilets @ North West
programme was launched on 7th June at 888 Plaza located at
Woodlands Drive 50. The programme aims to raise awareness and the standard
of cleanliness and hygiene of public toilets by targeting users, owners and
cleaners. The foodshops within Woodlands Constituency also aim to
have 50% of its toilets to be awarded Happy Toilets by end of 2009 and 100%
by end June 2010.
Aside
from having all its ten toilets successfully achieving our 4-star rating,
888 Plaza in Woodlands also became the first neighbourhood centre to have
4-star rated Happy Toilets. The Chairman of the Woodlands Citizens'
Consultative Committee commented that the 4-star Happy Toilet has two  added
features than the Singapore’s
Ok Toilet namely special delights and user-friendly facilities. In the
coming months, RAS will be conducting talks to owners to encourage owners to come onboard
the CLEAN Toilets @ North West programme and advising owners to improve
the condition of toilets to aid them in achieving the Happy Toilet
certification.
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RAS shares tips
on toilet etiquette with PARENTS WORLD readers
 RAS
was invited by the Editor of PARENTS WORLD to share with its readers on the
need for adopting good eco-friendly practices starting with parents
teaching their children good toilet hygiene at home. Our Manager Susan
Pereira, who is also a mother of a six-month old baby boy, penned down her
thoughts on the inculcation of good toilet etiquette. Her article was
published in the special feature section of the latest issue of PARENTS
WORLD, a monthly magazine which aims to promote family cohesion, and to
build a platform for parents to share ideas on parenting topics.
In
her article, she reiterated the importance of exercising good toilet
hygiene practices such as proper hand washing so as to prevent the
transmission of common childhood diseases like HFMD, gastric flu, diarrhoea
and other water-borne diseases. She also shared on the key concepts of our
Happy Toilet School Education programme for preschools, primary and
secondary schools such as the decorations of toilets and interactive talks.
[Read
Article]
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RAS participates in Health Education Seminar
RAS
was invited at the request of the Health Promotion Board (HPB) to an
environmental health seminar organised by the Ministry of Education and
held at Methodist Girls’ School on 4th June. The theme of the
seminar was “Building Bridges for Health Education, Exploring
Possibilities”. RAS showcased exhibits on its Happy Toilet School
Education programme for preschools, primary and secondary schools.
Brochures and collaterals were also  distributed
to teaching staff from over 300 schools to provide them with handy
information on the benefits of participating in our school education
programmes.
This health seminar was aimed at providing a
platform for schools to share innovative practices in health education;
discuss ideas for developing good health habits and attitudes in students
and to network with other participants for potential collaborations to
support their health literacy. During the seminar, HPB also showcased witty
anti-smoking TV-advertisements from Thailand and an anti-smoking
skit produced by a group of local students. Everyone benefitted from the
session that will enable them to infuse new ideas and approaches to
environmental education initiatives in their respective schools.
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RAS plays its part for the Asian Water Symposium
 Our
President was invited to the Asian Water Symposium on 18th June
to share with more than 100 students on water-saving tips and good toilet
etiquette. The conference was organised by the Waterways Watch Society in
collaboration with Dunman High
School, to leverage on Singapore
International Water Week (22-26 June). The conference was themed "Can
you do without water?" and targeted at students aged 15-20 with
experts invited to share and speak about climate change, environmental
protection and most importantly, water-related issues.
Dr. Amy Khor, Senior
Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment and Water Resources was invited
as the Guest of Honour to grace the opening of the event in the morning.
During the breakout session in the afternoon, our President, Ms. Tan Puay
Hoon, spoke about our initiatives and invited students to take our toilet
survey. After the breakout session, our President also sat in as one of the
panel speakers for the dialogue session. During the session, she urged the
students to use water responsibly when visiting the toilets and also shared
with them about the latest technologies like waterless urinals.
[More Details]
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