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 2011 was an eventful year
for the Restroom Association (Singapore) or RAS with the introduction of
our new holistic STAR (Sustaining Toilets As Restrooms) Awards Programme
for schools and the promotion of our existing programmes such as the
Happy Toilet Programme. Local and foreign media coverage about our
programmes and activities were also extensive and positive. This series
of events has generated considerably higher public awareness about us.
Extensive
media coverage continues this year with the release of our first
comprehensive survey results. We are indebted to the Ngee Ann
Polytechnic’s School of Business & Accountancy for their
support in the preparation, execution and analysis of this survey. While
a mandatory rating scheme for toilets was recommended based on the survey
results, this also coincided with the filming of star-rated Happy Toilets
by the ARD German Television and a Happy Toilet study visit by a group of
Lien Aid’s Vietnamese delegates. We hope all this publicity would
eventually help to promote more Happy Toilet participation and a
mandatory rating scheme will be unnecessary if every owner can see the
necessity of rating their toilets.
We
do not dilute our efforts in public awareness and education which is also
one of our key focuses to achieve clean restrooms for everyone. We
continue to educate the younger generation from as young as preschoolers
to tertiary students. For the past three months, we actively reached out
to preschools, schools and ITE colleges to promote good restroom etiquette.
We also extended our outreach to the public by participating in community
events organised by the PUB and South West Community Development Council
(CDC).
This
year, while we continue to focus on owner commitment and user education,
we wish to also focus our efforts on the training of restroom attendants
by encouraging owners to send their employees for proper training. With committed
owners, trained restroom attendants and considerate users, we believe we
can all work towards a better restroom environment. This would only be
possible with the continued support of various organisations from the
public, private and people sectors.
Ms Tan Puay Hoon
President
Restroom Association (Singapore)
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