World Toilet Organization

Last Saturday, on November 19th was the world toilet day (WTD). This day should inspire people to act on the global sanitation crisis. We still have more than 2.5 billion people without proper sanitation. It began in Singapore over twenty years ago with the world toilet organization. It was voted unanimously by the General Assembly of the UN on July 24th, 2013.

The world toilet organization is an NGO that is located in Singapore. It all started in 2001. During this year, not only was the organization founded, but also the first WTD was announced by them. They also host the World Toilet Summit. Both events aim to show the world the issues of the sanitation crisis. Politicians and industries are intended to wake up and take actions. This is especially crucial in regions where sanitation is not within the reach of millions of people and the western sewage system is not an option.

It started in Singapore.

The founder Jack Sam already started some years earlier in Singapore. Legend has it that his engagement started with a quote from his prime minister Goh Chock Tong: “The state of a country’s public toilets says a lot about its social system”. During his first years of dedication in the Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS), he implemented standards and quality management of public toilets. These included concepts, building regulations, and job descriptions for the cleaning staff.

The NGO has the vision of a world with a clean, safe toilet for everyone, everywhere at all times. It identifies three key pillars: (1) Advocate to change policy, like the WTD or the summit. (2) Educate and empower people on sanitation questions like at the world toilet college. And finally (3) build and develop sanitation infrastructure and capacities around the world.

If you want to find out more about toilets, the world toilet day, and everything around it, get connected and join us for a better resource use.

Source: https://www.worldtoilet.org/