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RAS awards six-star accreditation to first office restrooms

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA)'s office restrooms on Levels 18, 19 and 21 at mTower are the first to be awarded the top six-star rating for adopting the holistic DFEC - Detect, Feedback, Eliminate and Clean smart restroom solutions. The office restrooms have met RAS' excellent service and cleanliness requirements, and all its cleaning attendants certified with the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications in washroom cleaning.

Cleaning supervisors and facility-management staff also attended a training conducted by the RAS on public toilet assessment or inspection. RAS hopes more organisations will emulate the strong commitment of MPA to provide clean and safe restrooms with quality standard to its employees. MPA plans to progressively upgrade the rest of its office restrooms at mTower to meet the six-star rating. The six-star rating, which is renewed on an annual basis, is the top rating introduced in November 2014.

RAS introduces new best office category under its LOO (Let’s Observe Ourselves) Awards this year

Since 2016, a number of government offices namely Ministry of Social & Family Development, Health Sciences Authority, JTC Corporation, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), National Environment Agency and Singapore Examination and Assessment Board have certified their office toilets under the Happy Toilet Programme (HTP) with a few private offices coming on board the HTP. The numbers have been increasing over the years with more office buildings certified with the five-star rating.

Coinciding with the recent six-star accreditation of the MPA’s office, it is timely for RAS to introduce a new best office Happy Toilet category for its LOO Awards this year. This year, other Happy Toilet categories consist of the best hawker centre, best public transport hub, best shopping centre and best Happy Toilet of the Year. Happy Toilets that are awarded at least a five-star rating will be shortlisted by RAS for on-site judging by a panel of judges to determine the award recipients. The best Happy Toilet category was first introduced in 2010, a year after the first LOO Awards held in 2009.

RAS supports first preschool under the Happy Toilets @ Preschools Projects (HTPP) Grant

As part of their project to show appreciation to cleaning support staff, preschoolers of PCF Sparkletots Preschool @ Kampong Chai Chee Blk 135 performed simple cleaning of classrooms such as sweeping using small broom and brush after art lessons. The preschoolers also created educational posters and decorated the toilets. Preschoolers of another preschool Cherie Hearts @ Charlton apart from executing the above similar projects, they also created a mock-up toilet exhibition at their assembly area using recycled materials.

10 preschools under the Happy Toilets @ Preschools Programme were awarded the HTPP grant, to execute projects from April to December. Projects about showing kindness to cleaning support staff is a compulsory project and a minimum of $50 must be set aside to purchase grocery vouchers to be presented to the cleaning support staff. The grant was launched in November last year in partnership with APP Commercial Pte Ltd.