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 As we move forward in our
crusade for higher toilet standards, it is heartening to see a
substantial 40% increase in the number of Happy Toilets as compared to
the same period last year. The increase underscores not only the growing
popularity, but more vitally, the stronger commitment of the owners in
their provision of quality toilets. The programme is not merely about
toilets given a proper check but also creates a charitable cause to
employ needy housewives and retirees as Eco-Assessors to take up assignments
near their homes.
Though
there are more Happy Toilets in shopping malls now especially with the
recent addition of AsiaMalls, we hope more
hawker centres and coffee shops will follow suit. Owing to the strong
support of the National Environment Agency (NEA), there has been a surge
in the number of participating coffee shops with a four-fold increase as
compared to the same period last year. Currently, there are about 140 and
40 participating coffee shops and hawker centres respectively which translate
to about 40% of the hawker centres as compared to 10% of the coffee shops
on board the Happy Toilet Programme.
With
the added focus on the training of restroom attendants, we have embarked
on our outreach efforts to share key training information with our
network of Happy Toilet owners and schools. Take for instance, one of the
topics of a recent sharing session conducted for a group of school
Operations Managers from the North N2
cluster. RAS touched on the Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) training
framework on environmental cleaning which included cleaning of restrooms.
Our efforts were finally paid off with Broadway F&B Management,
Cheers Holdings and Persatuan Pemudi Islam Singapura
(PPIS) sending their employees for training.
Our
active involvement in a number of Earth Day community events and
volunteer engagement for our LOO (Let’s Observe
Ourselves)@Heartlands campaign is part of our continued focus on public
awareness and education. While our preschool and school programmes
continue to effectively educate the younger generation, our
LOO@Heartlands public awareness campaign effectively targets users of all
ages to act responsibly. With all the necessary measures targeting the
three key stakeholders namely the owners, cleaners and users, we hope all
will play an active role in preserving our image of a clean and green
city.
Ms Tan Puay Hoon
President
Restroom Association (Singapore)
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