How World Toilet Organization was established?
Having achieved financial independence at 40, Jack Sim, WTO's founder began wondering what life is all about. He was looking for something fulfilling for his spirit when one morning he read in the news PM Goh Chok Tong's remark that people should measure their graciousness against the cleanliness of their public toilets. He thought this was an interesting challenge: A subject that has been unspeakable for a long time. So he decided to take this duty. Amazingly, the media gave so much press coverage upon hearing that he was setting up the Restroom Association of Singapore.
Later, Jack met 15 other toilet associations in Japan. Since there was no world body, he offered to start a World Toilet Organization, and they all agreed. That's how WTO was founded in Singapore in 2001.
WTO kept growing so fast and Jack enjoyed it so much that he left operation of his business to his manager and worked pro bono full-time at WTO. Today WTO has 102 members in 44 countries.
WTO has broken the taboo on toilets by engaging the world media to report about toilets and sanitation stories. National Geographic Channel even produced a 1-hour documentary about WTO's work. The show is entitled: "THE TOILET MEN" and is currently screening world-wide.
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Main challenges towards improving the world's sanitation
The problem is people refuse to talk about toilets, and what we do not discuss, we cannot improve. If you ask a person how many times he eats a day, he'll know. If you ask him how many times he visits the toilet a day, that'll be the first time in his life he starts counting. People are so inhibited against the subject, it's as if they were having an illicit affair with their toilets. So WTO started the World Toilet Summit, an annual international conference for all people in the toilet and sanitation field to meet and exchange knowledge and experiences. We did it 2001 in Singapore, 2002 in Seoul, 2003 in Taipei, 2004 Beijing, 2005 Belfast , 2006 Moscow, 2007 New Delhi and this year will be in the Venetian Resort in Macau. Every event is sponsored by the respective local government as WTO gives them the hosting rights.
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Most compelling reason to improve sanitation. Who benefits the most?
60% of all rural diseases are caused by poor hygiene and sanitation condition. At any one time, half of the world's hospital beds are filled with people from water-borne diseases caused mostly by water polluted with untreated sewage. Proper sanitation is the best preventive medicine in the world.
Yet, 2.6 billion or 40% of mankind still do not have access to proper sanitation and toilets. And 2 million children die every year from diarrhea. Do we need more reasons to convince us that sanitation is so important? When the poor has health, they have more work and earn more. This is poverty alleviation. When they earn more, the economy grows and their quality of life improves. This in turn allows them to buy goods and improve employment. There is compelling economic reasons here too.
There is no such thing as human waste. Our excreta are actually nutrients and good fertilizers. If we recycle our nutrients back to the farms, we can save on chemical fertilizers which are very energy-intensive. We will also help conserve the depletion of phosphorous mines. We need phosphorous for fertilizers and we can get it abundantly from the toilets.
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How to ensure governments continue to invest in sanitation?
WTO is driving a market-based strategy. We realized that donors funding are not the long term solution. We need to drive demand. People need to want to buy and pay for their own toilets. Toilets need to become a symbol of status and an object of desire. So WTO is now engaging designers to make 'knock-down" sanitation systems and distribute them through the poor so that they participate in the supply chain. We hope to be the equivalent of "Ikea" for the poor in sanitation products.
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How WTO members make a difference?
WTO members are heroes for toilets and sanitation in their own right. By bringing them together under one banner, we created a common branding that brings their work to higher prominence. This can be done through various ways like sharing contact resources, technologies, public educations, humanitarian projects, setting standards, learning from each others' experiences, etc.
We meet each year at World Toilet Summit in a different country and update on the latest. Members may also speak or exhibit. The WTO branding has been very strong in the UN agencies as well and we continue to collaborate and build channels for members to connect.
Some examples wherein the WTO's work has paid direct dividends toward better sanitation
There are several to-date:
WTO has broken the toilet-taboo through leverage with the global media, high profile personalities, and humour. People now do not feel uncomfortable talking about the subject as before. This drives the demand for better provisions, and quality of toilets and sanitation.
Our joint lobby with global NGOs and UN agencies, multilaterals resulted in the Hashimoto Compendium of Action for Sanitation and the naming of 2008 as the UN International Year of Sanitation.
WTO has set up the World Toilet College in Singapore and plans have been made to set up branches in Malaysia and Indonesia. We want to franchise this college all over the world so that the same knowledge can be disseminated world-wide to improve the skills of toilet cleaners.
The series of high profile World Toilet Summits have generated momentum inside each of the host countries and changed the local situation, i.e. Singapore government gave $S4 mil grant for renovation subsidies of coffee shops toilets in neighborhood centres.
After each summit, the local government tends to engage the local WTO members to expand their scope and work. This happened with The British Toilet Association where, the subject of insufficient provision of public toilets was re-opened for discussion after the World Toilet Summit in Ireland. The recently concluded New Delhi summit opened by India's President Abdul Kalam and Crown Prince of Holland also created similar impact. Beijing's summit, wherein they renovated 4000 public toilets triggered other cities to follow suit. Shanghai's taxi drivers toilet maps and research publications have also created facilities not existing before.
WTO was given about $1 million to build public toilets in Aceh by the Red Cross. The Lien Foundation also sponsored another initiative to provide toilets for tsunami victims in Sri Lanka.
WTO has also won prestigious global awards for its social entrepreneurship, namely: The Schwab Foundation (Swiss) Outstanding Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2006. The Ashoka Global Fellow Award (USA) 2007; The Singapore Green Plan Award 2004
Right now, WTO is working with Ashoka Social Financial Services to build a World Sanitation Fund Facility to create a hybrid of donors funds with commercial lending such that the poor will in the near future get a full package of loans, grants, products and training to bring proper sanitation to the bottom of the pyramid. Deutsche Bank and UBS are 2 WTO's partners.
Last year, WTO joined Gtz, SEI and other partners to create the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance. This group is the most comprehensive sanitation players group and we meet every 3 months somewhere in the world. WTO sees this as another technological driver.
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Are dry toilets the future of sanitation?
