Keynote 1: Global Efforts to Achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals: Where are we now?

Presented by: Isabel Blackett, Senior Sanitation Specialist, Water and Sanitation Program - East Asia & The Pacific, World Bank, Indonesia

Day 1, 16th November, 10.30am

The latest review of the MDG’s challenged the sector with the disturbing news that unless there are substantially accelerated efforts to meet the goal to increase access to basic sanitation for 75% of the world population, the target will be missed by more than half a million people.  The people most in need of improved sanitation mainly live in poor rural areas or the urban slums of lower middle income and poor countries.  They can be expensive and difficult to reach with conventional solutions.

 

But what factors determine if a country is moving towards meeting the MDG’s or not? One of the closest correlations is the Government’s ownership of the sanitation program, their commitment to creating an enabling environment, and the extent to which the private sector is able to flourish and respond to market demands. China, South Africa and Uganda provide prime examples of Government, not donor driven sanitation programs. Likewise in this region Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore are outstanding examples of government-led programs that have resulted in almost 100% coverage with improved sanitation.  Political will, within countries, is a fundamental requirement for achieving large-scale success.  Generating that political will in the countries that are behind is a key challenge facing us today.

 

Meeting the increasingly elusive MDG challenge for sanitation also calls for new approaches and interventions to sanitation and hygiene improvement. These must be effective, equitable and sustainable and achievable at large scale in many diverse country contexts. In every case they must respond to the needs of the poorest people, who often live in remote or difficult locations.

 

Among effective strategies for large-scale interventions is sanitation and hygiene marketing although there are concerns about its ability to reach the poorest households with this approach alone. In contrast, participatory approaches like community-led total sanitation (CLTS) are good at reaching the poorest in lower density and remote communities, but are harder to scale up due to their dependence on well trained and highly skilled community facilitators. Combining these approaches can ensure that sanitation demand creation and supply of services are both stimulated. This reinforces the impact of each for optimal scaling up.

 

To illustrate, the rapid spread of CLTS in Indonesia over the past year suggests that this approach can provide an effective way of reaching the poorest households in rural communities. Simultaneously, everyone else will be served by a large-scale sanitation marketing approach that develops appropriate products and services, builds local sanitation businesses and supply chains, and promotes key sanitation and hygiene practices with the population at large.

 

So what can the private sector represented at the WTO do to support achieving the MDG for sanitation? Develop and market products that respond to the resources and aspirations of the poorest; promote and raise aspirations on good cleanliness and hygiene, and support Governments efforts to promote good hygiene – especially handwashing with soap. And where Governments are not yet investing enough in public sanitation infrastructure and essential services are lacking – raise realistic aspirations by joining in and supporting those who lobby for improved services and sanitation infrastructure.

Progressing Towards Gracious Living – Shanghai’s Public Toilets

Presented by: Sun Yuan Hai, Senior Engineer, Shanghai City Appearance & Environmental Sanitation Administrative Bureau

Day 1, 16th November, 1.35pm

As one of our goals emphasized in public toilet management, upgrading management of service systems have been carried out in the public toilets of Shanghai. Built by the sanitation department of the government & now supplemented by public finances, the public toilets in Shanghai are complemented with public area and emergency toilet services. More than 2200 toilets at plazas, hospitals and restaurants are supported by public finances, built and cleaned by the sanitation departments of the government. At present, these public toilets meet the needs of the public in terms of number and locations. In the downtown area, public toilets have been built within every three hundred meters for the convenience of the public.

Government Departments have played an important role in this successful achievement. The main motives include:

1. Develop an integrative system for management & servicing of public toilets

1.1 Major service function is conducted by public toilets invested by public finance, built and operated by government

The government has invested 170 million CNY for building 166 new stationary public toilets, renovating 547 public toilets, installing portable toilets in downtown areas & rebuilding more than 820 simple public toilets in towns and rural areas. All facilities and sanitary equipment of these toilets have been upgraded.

1.2 Effective complement to toilets in service areas by public participation

The City Government has gradually standardized the service of charged service toilets by means of enforcing regulations & encouraging the opening of markets, service upgrading, so as to make them an effective complement for government input and playing more and more important role in urban toilet services.

1.3 Installing portable toilets for emergency service

237 portable toilets have been installed by both City and District Sanitation Bureau for places without stationary public toilets and outdoor  activity to address the problem of financing the building of toilets in places of need, so as to meet the needs of the public. The emergency service system provides toilets at parking area and both sides of entrance of Shanghai Circuit for F1. During the "SARS" period, this system has provided service for residents under quarantine.

The above-mentioned 3 systems have developed the overall management and service of public toilet in Shanghai so as to provide convenient, clean and comfortable toilets for public.

2. Preparing plan, improving regulation and further standardizing the system

Outlines on the planning of public toilet locations in Shanghai & on the development of public toilet construction & management in Shanghai, prepared by the City Sanitation Bureau and Departments related have become guidelines for public building and management in Shanghai. For the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, preparation and implementation of plans for public toilet develepment in each District were urgently required.

For the standardization of locating & designing of public toilet in Shanghai, rules on locating sanitation facilities in cities & towns in Shanghai together with guidelines on planning and design of public toilets in city & towns of Shanghai have been prepared for locating and designing of public toilets in Shanghai. Various methods & rules on building public toilets in the city by the Shanghai City Appearance & Environmental Sanitation Administration have been prepared for charging toilets in public areas.

 

Based on all these rules, regulations and methods, upgrading has been made in the fields of investment from public finance, building of public toilets and management on toilets in service areas.

 

3. Professional service

 

For upgrading of toilet services, standards on toilet services prepared by the City Sanitation Bureau, encourages serving with warmth caution, patience and modesty; where proper mannerism includes proper standing posture, smiling, bilingually fluent, greetings & seeing someone off. For the users, sign notices remind users to keep the toilet clean & in good condition by using the toilets properly, not littering, flushing before leaving & to keep the facility in good conditions.

 

4. Humanized level of public toilet service and culture should be included

 

By all means, the government is making efforts to a more humanized level of public toilet service and culture in designing public toilets & services in Shanghai.

 

De-odouring devices have been installed in 535 public toilets while 1184 toilets are now hazard free. For convenience of the users, guiding systems have been improved, electronic map for toilets have been in place, toilet maps have been printed, telephone inquiries on toilet locations have also been put into trial operations and toilet guides have been put on litter at junctions of roads.

 

Efforts should be made on further promoting publications on toilet culture, servicing and technical concepts of toilet management. Studies should also be conducted on toilet culture as well as public toilet services & design specifically catered to the well-being of users so as to create an educated & well-disciplined toilet civilization.

The Happy Toilet – By Design & Not by Chance

Presented by: Tai Ji Choong, Head South-East Regional Office, National Environment Agency, Singapore

Day 1, 16th November, 1.55pm

Toilet cleanliness is a function of two parameters: cleaning maintenance and user habits.  While many recognize that a proper cleaning regime and good user habits beget clean toilets, insufficient attention has been paid to toilet design, which is a more fundamental parameter that affects the outcomes of cleaning maintenance and user habits.

 

Toilet design should therefore come before all-else.  However businesses generally view toilets as additional business cost that could be avoided or saved.  And toilet design takes a further backseat when toilet provision is a mandatory requirement or businesses, resulting in public toilets with minimum facilities that do not support a sustainable clean toilet environment.  As long as this mindset is not changed, there will not be advancement in public toilet hygiene and cleanliness.  In this regard, the government can play a role through well-thought out code of practices, legislation and partnerships with NGOs and the private sector.

 

Toilet design should address the 10 desired outcomes:

 

1. Ease of maintenance
2. Odour control
3. Good toilet hygiene
4. Discourage/minimize/mitigate bad user habits
5. Aesthetic environment
6. Facilitate a logical flow of use
7. Suit the needs of the target users
8. Enhance the overall user experience
9. Sustainability
10. Promote toilet education

How Ecological Sanitation Works In China

Presented by: Lin Jiang, Secretary General, Jiu San Society, Guangxi Committee, China 

 

Day 1, 16th November, 2.55pm

 

Ecological Sanitation has been utilised in China for about 8 years since its first implementation in 1997 & is now moving well into its third stage of progress. In the first stage, we learnt from experiences gained from external projects as well as history. We have successfully set up a pilot project and let Ecological Sanitation became a local technician in this stage before we move on to utilise local resources. In the second stage, we combine Ecological Sanitation together with biogas, physical environment improvements & agriculture so as to become an all-rounded, integrated system. We then promote this concept to the villages. In this way, we have developed nearly 10,000 Ecological Sanitation toilets in the province of Guangxi. At present, there are nearly 130,000 units of Ecological Sanitation dry toilet operating in Guangxi and about another 700,000 in more than 20 provinces.

Our main goals while working in the third stage is to reach out to more villages & try to further promote as well as spread awareness about Ecological Sanitation through the following ways.

1. Incorporating more Ecological Sanitation dry toilets in rural areas, by letting it become a national policy and contribute to the Millenium Development Goal. The sanitation coverage is only about 30% in rural areas of China so far.

2. Utilising the concept of containment, separation & recycling in Ecological Sanitation to control water pollution. We have begun a large Ecological Sanitation project in Dianchi lake area, where the lake is as large as 500km2( it use to be 800km2) but is severely polluted. The lake is located in Kunming of Yunnan province, & the government has been said to have put more than 10 billion RMB to improve it. Currently, no developments have taken place yet, causing the state of the lake to further deteriorate over time. Since 2005, we introduced Ecological Sanitation to address this issue; the Kunming government has also made a decision to develop 100,000 units of Ecological Sanitation toilets and using Ecological Sanitation to cover all the Dianchi area (only rural area as first step) within three years. So far, about 40,000 Ecological Sanitation toilets have been built.

3. Introducing Ecological Sanitation system to urban areas. This is the main point and the biggest challenge of the third stage; we have done much preparatory work for this stage & ,I am quite positive a successful model could be set up within three years. However, we are unable to attain any further progress due to financial constraints; much external resources & support is only acquired through opportunistic offers. 

 

Promoting Ecological Sanitation is highly similar to product pushing, so it is quite important to identify the benefits & selling points of utilizing Ecological Sanitation & how it caters to the specific needs of each village which varies accordingly. In some areas, epidemic disease control is a dire problem while in other areas water

shortage may be the main issue to address. Promotion of Ecological Sanitation can be carried out according to the different situations.

 

1. Promoting Ecological Sanitation in water shortage areas 
2. Promoting Ecological Sanitation in intestinal epidemic areas 
3. Promoting Ecological Sanitation in water pollution areas 
4. Promoting Ecological Sanitation in different climate areas 
5. Promoting Ecological Sanitation for tourism

Since the launch of Ecological Sanitation in China, we have developed more than 130,000 units of eco-friendly dry toilets solely in Guangxi as well as promoted this concept to more than 20 provinces.

 

However, generating awareness about ecological sanitation is not enough as compared to recognising the great potential of this revolutionary system in generating a global demand and changing the standards of sanitation on a whole-scale.

 

China will implement its 11th five-year plan since this year, we have been receiving more attention and money on rural development from the central government, and try to cut down the huge gap between the urban and the rural area, the most important action for that is the communist party central committee and the central government will start a campaign that is building a new socialist countryside, this campaign will last more than 10 years and will cover nearly 1 billion population.

Ecological Sanitation: A sustainable Sanitation technology in Bangladesh

Presented by: Tofayel Ahmed, Country Representative, Japan Association of Drainage & Environment (JADE), Bangladesh

Day 1, 16th November, 3.30pm

Bangladesh is a low lying, densly populated, coastal and deltaic South Asian country in the world. At present of 140 million people, overwhelmingly majority living in villages. As of 2005 per capita income is 360 US dollar, national GDP is 6.5 and literacy rate is 65%. As a third world country Bangladesh is experiencing deprivation from various basic rights. Proper sanitation is one of the common rights for human beings. But most of the people have no access to proper sanitation and are not aware of their rights. Now, sanitation is appearing to be one of the main impediments to address poverty. It has many economic and health implications that directly affect the national GDP. Every year Bangladesh is to count more than five hundreds crores taka for medical purposes related to water born diseases and sanitation. Furthermore, 125000 children under five years of age die of diarrhoel diseases, so 342 children of same age die every day. Other than diarrhoea, poliomyelitis, typhoid, dysentery, and hepatitis is very common phenomena in Bangladesh. The actual medical expenditure is beyond statistics at sight. This is certainly alarming for Bangladesh.

 

To overcome this situation, Bangladesh government has undertaken different steps in light of MDG and WSSD. A country wide baseline survey on sanitation system was undertaken in August-September'2003. The survey revealed that 33.21% families are using sanitary latrine, 24.80% use unhygienic latrines and 41.99% has no latrines. In line with WSSD goal, Bangladesh has set a target for 100% sanitation coverage by 2010. To meet this challenge, a massive plan has been undertaken which is underway. By September'2005, 63.93% sanitation coverage has already been achieved (govt. source). But it has achieved on the basis of pit latrine mainly. The pit latrine has referred as the basic minimum level service considering the general socio-economic conditions of the nation. However, pit latrine is promoted as popular technology as to its low cost. Although it has many technological, environmental and epidemiological constraints. By the name of sanitation (pit, septic and swear system etc.) or unsanitary way, dumping of sanitary sludge are activated in the river, canal, pond or in nearby open hole of the homestead or deposit it underneath the pit. This is directly threatening environment. It pollutes surface water as well as shallow ground water, damaging the aquatic life, spreading diseases, making dependency on ground water. No doubt it is responsible for unbalancing the ecosystem. As a whole the technologies which are promoting is not sustainable sanitary solution and in some cases it is high tech as well and costly also.

 

Considering global sanitation perspective and low sanitation coverage in third world countries Japan Association of Drainage and Environment (JADE) come forward to serve Bangladesh as the pioneer organization in the field of ecological sanitation. It has been promoting eco-san technology in Bangladesh since 2003 through the project "Technical cooperative activity to improve sanitation at rural areas in Bangladesh focusing on dissemination and awareness raising." It is  implementing in two different ares (hydro geological, socio-econimical, and geographical difference). Former one is being implemented by the government agency the BARD (Bangladesh Academy of Rural Development), Comilla. It has started in 2003, three villages near BARD premises. In those villages, 15 eco-toilets have been constructed with the 100% subsidy from the project. The second one is being conducted by an NGO, SPACE (Society for Peoples Actions in Change and Equity), Dhaka. It has started in 2005, also in three villages in Srinagar sub-district in Munshiganj district. Under this project 25 eco-toilets have been constructed with 80% subsidy from the project. The purposes of this project are:

1. To raise people's awareness through hygiene and sanitation education.
2. Sanitation improvement and sanitary management of human excreta through the ecological sanitation considering resource cycle.
3. Construction and management of ecological sanitation independently.
4. Improvement of degraded soil condition through the human excreta application into natural cycle process.

During progress monitoring period it was found that users had some limitations to use it initially, but finally it was observed that knowledge, attitude and practice of all the families have improved and use toilet very efficiently. In Comilla, farmers are using urine and excreta in their farmland. They are very happy to use their own excreta as fertilizer. But once they thought that how will use excreta, the apparently bad things in farmland. After observing the compost faeces, their idea has been significantly changed. They realized the effectiveness of eco-toilet in terms of environmental cleanliness, economy and cultural perspective. This well furnished toilet has also brought their additional status/honor in the society. It is noted that five eco-san toilets have already been constructed in different parts of Bangladesh by 100% cost sharing from user families. It is an encouraging event in this field for sure.

Safeguarding the Health of Toilet Users

Presented by: Lo Wing-Lok, Hong Kong Toilet Association, Hong Kong

Day 2, 17th November, 9.05am

The toilet is the place where many people upkeep their person hygiene, but it can also be the most unhygienic place.

 

Toilets have long been known as venues for transmission of faecal germs. Bacillary dysentery is a classical example of how faecal germs can be transmitted inside toilets. After a person with dysentery has been using a toilet compartment, his hands are likely contaminated with germs. As there is usually no hand washing facilities within a compartment, he has to open the door with his unwashed hands, thereby leaving dysentery germs on the door handle.

 

Respiratory germs could also contaminate toilets. Toilet users not only void their bladder and bowel, they also clear their nose and throat. If it were too embarrassing and unhygienic to cough openly, considerate individuals may choose the toilet as the place to cough. In doing so, they leave droplets with germs in it on the surfaces of the toilet. Influenza is known to spread in toilets.

 

Surfaces, knobs and handles of toilets can be looked at as venues for exchange of germs among toilet users, whose health and safety can only be safeguarded by making appropriate health consideration in the design and maintenance of toilets.

 

A layout that helps protect the privacy of toilet users and at the same time do away with the need to use too many doors, will minimize the hazard of users coming into contact with the door handles. The same applies to automatic faucets. If toilet users consider that the faucets are even dirtier than their unwashed hands, they may not wash their hands afterwards, if they were required to turn the faucet manually.

 

Placing paper towels nearer to the washing basins will help keep the floor of toilets dry; putting up deeper washing basins will have the same effect because the splash is more likely contained by the walls of the basin.

 

Automatic faucets, conveniently located paper towels, a drier floor near the washing basins will encourage toilet users to wash their hands. Hand washing is the most important safeguard of our health after using a toilet, because even though our hands may be contaminated by germs through touching the various surfaces of a toilet, we can remove most of them by washing our hands before leaving.

Building Dignity, Not Toilets

Presented by: Joe Madiath, Executive Director, Gram Vikas, India

Day 2, 17th November, 9.45am

Gram Vikas, a rural development organization working in Orissa since 1979, has been engaging with poor and marginalized rural communities in efforts to improve their quality of life. Gram Vikas believes that the villages of India need to be revived to reverse the trend of unsustainable city centric growth process dominant today. Gram Vikas’ work initiated under the RHEP (Rural Health and Environment Programme) has now evolved into MANTRA (movement and action network for transformation of rural areas), a development initiative focusing on development of the habitat and strengthening of village institutions. This work is based on the belief that changes in the existing social and economic processes can lead both communities and individuals to have better bargaining capacities with the state and market. 

 

Gram Vikas’ focus is on poor and marginalised people. Its activities are rooted in the belief that exclusion is the bane of our society and the only way to improve the situation is to design a mechanism so that every section of the society has an experiential learning of inclusion. This will foster cohesive communities, who in turn, would evolve robust self-governing institutions that are accountable to them. In every village covered by Gram Vikas, more than 80% of the families are among the poorest of the poor. Gram Vikas puts strong emphasis on restoring dignity to communities, relieving women of the drudgery of fetching water from distant sources and helping them avoid the shame of open defecation. Gram Vikas works in villages only when each and every family, cutting across barriers of caste, class, gender, etc., agrees to be part of the programme. The villagers come together not only to raise the necessary funds for the project but also for joint decision making, initially in respect of the water supply, sanitation and housing, but eventually for all other decisions to be taken in the community.  Villagers bring together all the local materials like rubble for the foundation, sand, aggregates and prepare the bricks.  They also contribute all skilled and unskilled labour. A training in masonry is conducted at the on-set of the programme for unskilled labourers both men and women – to ensure the availability of skilled labourers for the work.  This skill also gives them a livelihood option.  The cost of the external materials like cement, steel, commode, doors etc is considered as a social cost and is at present met from government and other sources.

 

One of the first steps in the intervention is to bring together all adult men and women of the village to form the general body, which elects a village committee. Each family must contribute on an average Rs.1,000 (US$ 22) to a village corpus fund, where the better-off pay more and poorer families pay less. The corpus raised is invested in the local bank, by the village committee. The interest earned is to be used by the village committee ONLY to build toilets and showers for new houses that may come up in the village in future, ensuring 100% coverage at all times. 

 

Villagers come together to build toilets and bathing rooms and a central water tank for the village.  Water is pumped from a safe source and stored in the overhead tank and supplied to every family round the clock through underground pipe system. Toilets and bathing rooms with running water are provided on an individual basis with twin leach pits per toilet. Every family gets a tap each in the toilet, shower and kitchen. The planting of banana and papaya trees adjacent to these leach pits ensures that not only is there little need to ever empty them, but also that a plentiful supply of bananas is available.

 

Women have become torch bearers of the programme as it directly influences their lives, reducing drudgery in daily chores. More importantly it ‘creates spaces’ and builds capacities for women to participate at the community level. Gradually empowered they are able to work with men in areas traditionally considered to be in men’s domain.

 

Use of toilets is 100% in all villages and penalties are imposed in case the ‘rule’ is broken.  There is also greater attention to cleanliness in the villages. All these have had a positive impact on the health status and thus on happiness quotient of all participating villages, through the reduction of

water-borne diseases and an overall improvement in nutrition levels. Many women now have easy access to green vegetables grown in their own small kitchen gardens that use the wastewater diverted from the baths. In all villages there has also been a marked increase in school attendance because the women’s committee has been supervising the effectiveness of the educational curriculum. Mechanisms to meet the revenues expenses are also in place in all villages.

 

Through our experience we have realized that to trigger the process of development amongst poor rural communities, a threshold level of quality of life needs to be achieved, with access to basic services and livelihood options, so that people can live with dignity. Once ejected from the orbit of poverty, they take development into their own hands and charter the course of their destinies

Happy Toilet School Education (HTSE)

Presented by: Colin See, Executive Director, Restroom Association of Singapore, Singapore 

Day 2, 17th November, 10.40am

“Education is the basic element in the survival and prosperity of the state. And the promotion of education should be the responsibility of every citizen. It is man's best inheritance.”

 

Mr Lee Kong Chian

Founder 

Lee Foundation, Singapore

Developing gracious behaviour starts from the young. This paper states the challenges Restroom Association (Singapore) face in achieving clean public toilets in Singapore and why/how they can be overcome through public education.  This paper also illustrates how the Happy Toilet School Education programme, has benefited schools in improving their toilet culture and cleanliness.  The paper also explains our plans to ensure the continuity of this programme in the future.

Air Hygiene in Washrooms

Presented by: Lee Yuan-Kun, Department of Microbiology, Yong Loo Ling School of Medicine, National University of Singapore

Day 2, 17th November, 11.20am

The microbial content of indoor air is many thousand times higher than that of outdoor open area environment.  The type of microorganisms in the air ducts and the general indoor environment are usually those of the natural environment (from soil, plant and animal), and from human skin and upper respiratory tract.  The microbial types found in toilet air are often that of the respiratory tract and of fecal origin, many of them potentially pathogenic. The content of air microorganisms in the toilet is a function of the human traffic, design of flushing, ventilation, and general hygiene.

Designing Accessible Toilets for All

Presented by: Michael Siu, President & Founder Member, Hong Kong Toilet Association, Hong Kong

Day 2, 17th November, 1.40pm

Reviewing the issues of accessibility of public toilets, two major problems exist. The first one is the lack of appropriate facilities. To solve this problem, it is obvious as well as crucial to provide appropriate facilities for the needs of people with special needs. The second one is the inadequacy of design and management of available facilities so that people are not able to or have difficulty in accessing the facilities. In reference to the second problem, it is a pity and also unacceptable that such facilities are wasted, although resources have already been spent. Several studies have been conducted to review the quality of accessibility of public toilets since 2000. By illustrating the research findings, this paper reviews the existing designs of public toilet facilities for people with special needs. The research shows that public toilet facilities should serve users with different capabilities. The improvement of accessibility should be conducted in three levels:

 

(i)                 Policy

(ii)               Design and Implementation

(iii)             Management and Maintenance.

 

Approaching the aim of "Toilets for All," the paper further argues that accessible design (that is, design with a high degree of user-compatibility) should not only consider users' physiological needs, but also their psychological, cultural, social, and ideological needs.

An Update on Public Restrooms in the USA

Presented by: Professor Kathryn H. Anthony, Ph.D, School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Member, Board of Directors, American Restroom Association, USA

Day 2, 17th November, 2.00pm

This presentation provides a brief overview of recent developments in public restrooms in the US.  New trends highlighted here include an increase in family restrooms, unisex facilities, and states and municipalities with potty parity laws.  Family restrooms are sprouting up in airports, shopping malls, and sports facilities. Unisex facilities are on the rise across college and university campuses, in urban nightclubs, and in public parks, such as Kellogg Park at La Jolla Shores in San Diego, California.  Potty parity laws are re-shaping the urban landscape, as seen in public restrooms at Chicago’s Millennium Park, opened in 2004, which include twice as many fixtures for women as for men. 

 

Yet these trends are still by far the exception rather than the rule, and the US continues to lag far behind other countries when it comes to the availability of public restrooms.  This poses serious problems for many segments of the population, especially families with young children, pregnant women, the elderly, those with physical disabilities—both visible and invisible—and those who are “restroom-challenged.”  In most American cities, finding a public restroom is still a challenge, and the World Toilet Forum theme, “happy toilet, healthy life” remains an ideal and not yet a reality.  The American Restroom Association was established in 2004 to address these issues. 

 

This session concludes with an overview of recent activities of the American Restroom Association, an update on the organization's mission, goals and recent accomplishments.  Its mission is to advocate for the availability of clean, safe, and well-designed public restrooms.  Its goals are to:

 

•  Promote code change.
•  Communicate with and develop relationships with related organizations.
•  Document Americans’ perceptions of public restrooms.
•  Implement public relations campaigns for media coverage.
•  Create an interactive public restroom site on the Web.

Effective Design for Toilets in Places of Interest

Presented by: Mary Coakley, Project Manager, American Restroom Association, Chair, La Jolla Shores Association Parks & Beaches Committee, USA

Day 2, 17th November, 2.20pm 

This presentation will provide numerous photos and architectural drawings along with an overview of the events that led up to the design/redesign/redesign and eventual successful construction of the Kellogg Park South Restroom.  It will include a brief comparative analysis of the pros and cons present in each plan and a discussion about the design elements and criteria used to develop the architectural drawings for the “state of the art” restroom.  The outline below will provide the talking points. 

 

The restroom opened ceremoniously with a “Royal Flush” July 2005 and accommodates the 2-3 million visitors who enjoy the beach each year.  It is a cost effective prototype providing more function than the original approved plan, in one-third the space at approximately one-half the cost.  It also provides maximum function in minimum space with ease of maintenance, reduces vandalism and vagrancy, meets today’s changing societal needs and adheres to current legislative requirements for persons with disabilities, while successfully incorporating critical elements related to providing optimum safety, availability, accessibility, and aesthetic value.   

 

The restroom is located in a beautiful setting in an “interesting place.”  It serves as the inspiration for implementation of an ongoing broad-based educational and artistic opportunity.  In conclusion…a toilet must first and foremost fulfill the needs of those who use it…but with proper design and a little creativity, it can be ever so much more.

Providing Accessibility - Street Toilets

Presented by: Johannes Bergmann, Project Manager, Stroeer Out-of-Home-Media, Research & Development

Day 2, 17th November, 2.40pm

In Germany equipment and standard of public toilets are in most cities what they were 40 years ago.

 

The last big investments in public toilets by the town councils were made when the underground trains were built.

The situation of public toilets in cities is mainly affected by morals of the century before last: hidden, under ground, not to be looked into.

That, strengthened by omitted maintenance, neglected cleaning as well as vandalism, made people reject using public toilets. Many facilities gradually became a place for dealing with drugs or meeting points for people with homosexual tendencies.

 

Problems

 

German cities are not obliged by law to provide a sufficient number of public toilets.

 

Building regulations obligate public facilities like stores, restaurants and bars to offer customers toilets.

 

This resulted into a shift of responsibility from the public to the private sector. Therefore accessibility, equipment, hygiene and opening hours depend on the public facilities who offer toilets.
Important needs like closeness to playgrounds or tourist attractions are not considered.  As a result finding a restroom when it is needed often becomes challenging, especially for children and the elderly.

 

Since many years the town councils in Germany can not financially afford to improve the standard of public toilets. Therefore in the 1980s outdoor advertising started offering to build and –which is even more important- maintain public toilets. In return they get attractive public advertising space.

 

Development

 

Through this process, we have created a complete new competitive market in its beginning stages.
The first facilities were simple boxes made of concrete containing vandalism-safe interiors. This is followed by the installation of auto-cleaning toilet bowls and floor sections.

 

Today’s technical culmination offers the development of a toilet cabin with complete automatic floor cleaning and two toilet bowls, where each bowl gets completely cleaned and dried while the other one is in use.

 

Additional special features include

 

-         Reduction of water by 80% via vacuum sanitation system

-         Fully automatic cleaning from floor, toilet bowl, urinal and back wall meeting high hygienic standards.

-         Independent water tubing through water processing and closed water circuit.

-         Separate urinals, complemented with automatic cleaning of urinal and floor.

 

Through this form of development, a growing number of cities have solved their problems and now offers accessible, modern, well maintained and clean public toilets.

Public Toilet from an Islamic Perspective – A Malaysian experience

Presented By: Dr. Asiah Abdul Rahim, Department of Architecture, Kulliyah of Architecture & Environmental Design, International Islamic University Malaysia

Day 2, 17th November, 3.00pm

The objectives of this paper first is to explore the culture, social, behavior and religion of users of the public toilet, in Malaysian context especially related to users’ expectations and demands. Islam is the official religion of Malaysia and more than half of the population is Muslim. In our daily life, locally or abroad, especially at the public place, one of the most important facilities needed is a public toilet. The function of a public toilet is to provide facilities for the public to use in which they may urinate, defecate, clean themselves, groom, perform parenting needs (where applicable) and otherwise attend to bodily needs in a clean, secure, private and hygienic manner. But the questions that always arise are the level of its cleanliness and its design. The design of the toilet sometimes does not comply to user needs especially for the Muslim users who use water to cleanse themselves, including children and disabled persons. Thus this  paper will illustrate some good practice of public toilet design from Islamic perspective,  taking consideration of the newly published Malaysian Standards for public toilet which have considered this issue: MS 2015: Part 1: 2006: Minimum Design Criteria. Other standards include:   MS 2015: Part 2: 2006: Inspection criteria; MS 2015: Part 3: 2006: Rating Criteria; MS 2015: Part 4: 2006: Code of Practice for maintenance.  The second objective is to explore the various concepts such as barrier free architecture, architecture for all, universal design and inclusive design which have been used in building designs including public toilets in many parts of the world, including the Muslim world. The methodology used will be based on table research and literature review, personal observations local and abroad to showcase the good practice of toilet design from Islamic perspective. In line with the theme of this World Toilet Forum, `Happy toilet, Healthy life’, it is about time that those who are involved in providing public toilets be it the local authorities, government or private sectors, including professionals such as architects, designers, and other industrial players to give full  efforts in providing our public toilets in line with users’ needs on the following  aspects include safety, hygiene, security, good ventilation and lighting, appropriate location, it should be accessible to everybody by all ages, children, adults and the aged groups that is from `the womb to the tomb’ and above all the religion needs.

Designing Out Crime In Public Toilets

Presented by: Katy Owen, researcher, Designing Out Crime Association, UK

Day 2, 17th November, 3.55pm

This paper will briefly introduce some of the key theories and practices behind designing out crime to provide delegates with enough information to be able to design their own safe toilet suites. The main crime and anti- social behaviour problems that occur in toilets such as drug abuse, vandalism and sexual offences will be discussed along with methods to avoid and overcome these. In particular, issues around the location of the toilet, lighting and its design will be considered. Throughout the presentation, a variety of examples of toilets in which crime has been designed out will be shown in addition to poorly designed toilets. At the end of the presentation, delegates will be able to incorporate a few key designing-out-crime principles to their own countries in order to create a safe toilet culture.