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RAS unveils its 5-year action plan

At the seventh LOO (Let’s Observe Ourselves) Awards ceremony held at Qihua Primary School to commemorate World Toilet Day on 19th November, RAS released its online survey results which were categorised into 3 sections namely Standards, Awareness and Behaviour. With the kind support from SurveyMonkey, fully absorbing all costs, RAS was able to successfully reach out to 600 online respondents in October. The highly-effective functions of the SurveyMonkey’s platform enabled RAS to perform deeper analysis of the results through data comparison. In response to the results, RAS unveiled its action plan from 2016 to 2021 of evolving as a Toilet Hub to heighten awareness about RAS.

The action plan targets building owners, cleaning attendants and public users as follows:

1) Building owners

· Mystery Audits @ Food Establishments

Based on the survey results with double the number of respondents not visiting food establishments with dirty toilets, the RAS will look into improving the toilet standards of food establishments by first conducting mystery audits from 2016 to 2021. RAS will then bring in partners to provide solutions for owners and training for their cleaning attendants.

· Guide to Better Public Toilet Design and Maintenance 4th Edition

For the top-three amenities on the wish list of respondents, RAS will include water-free hand sanitisers and feminine hygiene products in its 4th edition of the Guide to Better Public Toilet Design and Maintenance which is targeted to be released in 2018, which is five years after the publication of the 3rd edition in 2013. As for Wi-Fi, RAS does not encourage it to be provided in public toilets so as to discourage use of mobile phones in the toilet that may pose a hygiene problem of mobile phones contaminated with faecal matter. Moreover, with Wi-Fi, mobile phone users tend to occupy the toilet longer and thus prevent other users who really need to use the toilet. In the meantime before the publication of the 4th edition, RAS will actively share the top-two amenities with building owners.

2) Cleaning Attendants

· LOO (Let’s Observe Ourselves) Exhibition @ Shopping Centres

In its bid to be an active Voluntary Welfare Organisation (VWO) for cleaning attendants, the RAS will develop new exhibition panels with the LOO (Let’s Observe Ourselves) Whiz toilet cleaning game to raise awareness about the plight of cleaning attendants. For a start, RAS will work with about 40 Happy Toilet shopping centre owners to display the panel. Cleaning attendants at these shopping centres will also be recognised by awarding them with grocery vouchers. The events are expected to take place in June 2016 to commemorate International Cleaners Day on 15 June after which the events will last for as long as possible. The event will include fundraising for the cleaning attendants.

· World Toilet Day Commemoration Fund (WTDCF)

From 2016, RAS will change the WTDCF requirements of its World Toilet Day to make appreciation of cleaning attendants a compulsory component, so as to encourage all participating preschools and schools to organise activities to appreciate the cleaning attendants.

3) Public Users

· RAS Great SaniSale (GSS)

As survey results revealed user behaviour of respondents who heard about the RAS was better than those who did not know about RAS, raising public awareness about the RAS would therefore translate to better user behaviour. The RAS GSS, with the same acronym as the Great Singapore Sale, will be targeted for launch on World Toilet Day in 2016. RAS will work with sanitary-product companies to offer GSS discounts to the public either in the month of November or week of World Toilet Day. Thus, the GSS is the first step to raise awareness about the RAS. RAS will also invite interested members of the public to become Friends of RAS to enjoy discounts throughout the year instead of just during the GSS period.

· LOO (Let’s Observe Ourselves) Exhibition @ Happy Toilets

RAS will develop new exhibition panels about RAS and display them at high-traffic Happy Toilet locations from 2016 to 2021 to further raise public awareness about RAS. The locations will also include LOO (Let’s Observe Ourselves) Exhibition @ Shopping Centres. At the exhibition, members of the public will be invited to join as Friends of RAS.

· Public Consultation/Focus Group Discussion

With dirtier male toilets, less hygiene consciousness among male respondents and more phone users in public toilets, the RAS will consult the public or hold a focus group discussion by June 2016 to look into effective messages reminding male users to keep the toilets clean as well as requesting users to refrain from using their mobile phones in public toilets. RAS will secure sponsors to provide free posters to all building owners. Posters will also be made available on its website for download. The posters are expected to be ready by September 2016.

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RAS gives out 39 awards at the seventh LOO (Let’s Observe Ourselves) Awards

A total of 39 LOO Awards recipients were recognised for their commendable achievements with 9 outstanding preschools and 10 schools receiving the award under the Happy Toilets @ Preschools Programme (HTPP) and STAR (Sustaining Toilets As Restrooms) Awards Programme respectively for the first time. In his speech, Chief Executive Officer of National Environment Agency (NEA) Mr Ronnie Tay reinterated the importance of educating the younger generation in keeping toilets clean and expressed NEA's strong support for RAS flaghsip educational programmes namely the HTPP and STAR. LOO Awards host and recipient Qihua Primary School was singled out for its strong commitment in advocating clean restrooms. Apart from decorating its restrooms to enhance the user experience, its students also regularly conduct restroom etiquette talks and games for pre-schoolers.

Besides education and school programmes on restroom etiquette, Mr Tay added that different stakeholders had to work together to continuously maintain and raise the cleanliness standards of public toilets - be it government, building owners, building management, business operators, cleaning service providers or cleaning attendants. He cited notable LOO Awards recipients, Housing & Development Board, National Library Board and Transquest Supplies & Co. Pte. Ltd as role models. Mr Tay invited everyone to give a round of applause to 10 outstanding award recipients, the restroom cleaning attendants, for their strong committment and dedication. Each attendant also received $200 worth of grocery vouchers. After the award ceremony, Mr Tay had the opportunity to view the actual preschooler games that were creatively designed by Qihua Primary students. This was followed by a tour of the decorated restrooms which was hosted by the students.

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RAS trains more than 50 cleaning attendants for WSQ Perform Basic Cleaning of Washrooms assessment

The National Library Board (NLB) is the first building owner to engage RAS through its cleaning service provider, CBM Pte Ltd, to implement WSQ washroom cleaning assessment for its attendants. Two separate training sessions were conducted on 21st and 28th November at the National Library Building prior to the WSQ assessment. The purpose of the 3-hour training session is to equip the attendants with the know-how of washroom cleaning so as to better prepare them for the assessment. Another 40 attendants working at the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands underwent similar training sessions prior to the assessment in December.

In his speech at the LOO Awards ceremony, NEA Chief Executive Officer Mr Ronnie Tay emphasised the need to raise the competency of the cleaning attendants. Last year, RAS signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Center for Competency-Based Learning and Development to provide better training on toilet cleaning. This partnership would see participants, for the first time, not only receiving the WSQ Statement of Attainment but also a Certificate of Attendance by the RAS. This helps to ensure that the attendants are not only trained, but are assessed on their competency under the WSQ framework.

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RAS recognises more than 50 restroom cleaning attendants at its LOO (Let’s Observe Ourselves) Carnival & Exhibition

This is the second year RAS has incorporated recognition of restroom attendants in its carnival & exhibition with $2,080 worth of grocery vouchers presented to 52 attendants for tirelessly maintaining the Happy Toilets at 8 shopping malls in Bukit Panjang, Joo Chiat, Jurong West, Queenstown, Taman Jurong, Tampines, Yew Tee and Woodlands. At each mall, an exhibition was set up for a week with games and activities conducted by volunteers during the weekends to educate shoppers to keep Happy Toilets clean so as to lighten the attendants’ workload.

For the carnival & exhibition organised in Tampines from 15 to 16 June, RAS also worked with St. Hilda’s Secondary students to organise a tribute lunch session and give out vouchers to the attendants. Owing to donations by kind-hearted souls via the SG Gives web portal, RAS was able to distribute $4,080 worth of vouchers to the attendants including vouchers worth $2,000 presented to the 10 LOO Awards recipients. Banners were displayed at the carnivals & exhibitions to urge the public to donate.

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