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 The RAS, Restroom
Association (Singapore) has introduced the World Toilet Day
Commemoration Fund (WTDCF) for preschools and schools in its bid to
raise awareness about World
Toilet Day (WTD) which is now observed internationally on 19th
November. With a staggering 2.5 billion people still without access to
proper sanitation, the United
Nations General Assembly designated 19th November as WTD on 24 July
2013 to make sanitation for all a global development priority.
Since 19th November 2001 when the World Toilet Organization (WTO) was
founded, RAS as one of the WTO founding members, has been organising
activities such as the LOO
(Let’s Observe Ourselves) Awards to commemorate WTD every year.
Since 2013, a minute of silence is also observed for the 2.5 billion
people who do not have access to proper sanitation and 1.5 million
children who die as a result of poor sanitation. This year, we aspire to
expand our WTD outreach by roping in preschools and schools to jointly
commemorate WTD. The WTDCF was thus introduced to encourage all
preschools and schools, both government and private, to organise
toilet-related activities and events in October and November.
In Singapore where there is no lack of proper
sanitation, there is still room for improvement especially with the
standards of coffeeshop and hawker centre toilets. We are heartened to
see better toilet standards for hawker centres over the years. All 15
hawker centres managed by the Moulmein-Kallang Town Council (MKTC) will
be certified soon under the Happy Toilet Programme (HTP).
With MKTC’s participation, we are on target to achieve a milestone of
60% Happy Toilet hawker centres. There are now five town councils
supporting the HTP and we are anticipating more to display their strong
commitment to provide quality toilets for all users including the less
fortunate.
As a charity and a Voluntary Welfare
Organisation (VWO) which has been conferred the ‘Institutions of a
Public Character’ (IPC) status since 2010, we not only focus on the welfare of
low-wage cleaning attendants but also less fortunate users such as users with
special needs. We did not hesitate to extend our helping hands to Inflammatory
Bowel Disease (IBD) patients when we were approached by the Singapore Crohn's and Colitis Society
to launch the "Can't Wait" card. As for low-wage cleaning
attendants, we also roped in a
group of St. Hilda's Secondary students to partake in our Happy Toilets @
Shopping Malls service learning project to appreciate cleaning attendants
at a shopping mall. Finally, with the successful introduction of the
WTDCF, we hope to see more schools applying for this fund to organise
activities in October and November to commemorate WTD.
Ms Tan Puay
Hoon
President
Restroom Association (Singapore)
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