The United Nations General Assembly has adopted Singapore’s UN resolution entitled “Sanitation for All”, with 19 November being designated as World Toilet Day.
The resolution calls for greater attention to be paid to the global sanitation crisis through the commemoration of World Toilet Day.
Jack Sim, founder of World Toilet Organization, said: “There is nothing wrong with going to the toilet. Talking about toilets should be the same as talking about eating, drinking because after all, that is the end of the process. And if we were to be able to talk about it we will break the taboo.”
Mr Sim founded the World Toilet Organization on 19 November 2001 and since then the date has been declared World Toilet Day.
It is hoped that all countries will use this day as a platform to have public education activities on the global challenge of sanitation and toilets.
The UN estimates that 2.5 billion people worldwide still lack access to improved sanitation.
Mr Sim said: “If you don’t have toilets, you have pollution of the river. In India, 90 percent of their surface water is contaminated by faeces. So how can you drink water from the river? How do you bathe? How do you wash your clothes? How do you wash your baby? How do you wash your cooking utensils? You used to be able to do all these things in the very beautiful river.”
The Singapore government said it is important that the issue of sanitation receives greater prominence.
Foreign Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam noted: “760,000 children die every year, some cause that’s directly related to diarrhoea, in turn lack of sanitation. So is that a good thing to raise awareness, increase the understanding of the issue? We believe so and that is why we took the initiative.”
Minister for Environment and Water Resources Dr Vivian Balakrishnan also said that he was pleased that the UN adopted Singapore’s resolution to designate 19 November as World Toilet Day.
“Singapore was an early implementer of the concept of ‘Sanitation for All’. This made a major difference for our public health and hygiene. More recently, we are also leading the world in the treatment and recycling of used water. Water will become an increasingly critical issue for the world in the years ahead, and Singapore is pleased to play a part in these developments” said Dr Balakrishnan.
So far, response to the Singapore initiative has been positive.
Over 100 UN delegations are co-sponsoring the resolution “Sanitation for All”.
They include Bangladesh, Vietnam, Jamaica and the United Kingdom.
In Singapore, Mr Sim said more can still be done to improve toilet sanitation in hawker centres and coffee shops, and training cleaners is one way to start.
He believed Singapore has the potential to be the first country in the world to have absolutely clean toilets.
With the adoption of World Toilet Day on a global scale, Mr Sim hopes to see proper sanitation access worldwide in the next 15 to 20 years.
On 19 November 2013, the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR), National Environment Agency (NEA) and PUB will commemorate World Toilet Day in Singapore with partners such as the Restroom Association of Singapore, the World Toilet Organization and Lien Aid.
