Happy toilet? Singapore rates its loos

SINGAPORE (June 2, 4:37 a.m. ADT) - Singapore plans to rate public toilets using a five-star system similar to that used to grade hotels as part of a new campaign called "Happy Toilet," an official said Monday. Auditors will rate toilets on cleanliness, layout and ergonomics, said Jack Sim, president of the Singapore Restroom Association, which developed the rating system alongside the Health Ministry.

"We came up with this program because today when you go to a public toilet you do not know what to expect inside," Sim said. "Sometimes you are very happy, but sometimes you are very shocked - disgusted."

Plaques bearing star ratings will soon appear outside many of Singapore's 70,000 public toilets, which are found in food courts, shopping centers, industrial buildings and army barracks, Sim said.

The tightly controlled island nation of 4 million people is well known for its behavior improvement campaigns targeting gum chewing, spitting and people who don't flush toilets.

A three-star rating will mean a toilet is regularly cleaned and restocked with toilet paper, soap and paper towels. Restrooms that fail to meet the minimum three-star standard will receive no rating.

To received a five-star rating, a restroom has to have an especially well-designed layout so that traffic flows smoothly from the toilets to the sinks, Sim explained.

"It has to have a very good ambiance, probably with plants and pictures," Sim said. "You will know it's a five-star even without someone endorsing it."

The program is voluntary and rated restrooms will automatically be considered for the newly created Singapore Loo of the Year award, Sim said.

Environment Minister Lim Swee Say will launch the system at a ceremony later this month, Sim said.

"Oh Cloacina, Goddess of this place,
Look on thy servant with a smiling face.
Soft and cohesive let my offering flow,
Not rudely swift nor obstinately slow."

- that little bit of Victorian nonsense has been residing quietly in my memory banks for years, and I never had an opportunity to use it until now. :-D

Great idea! Huge, huge difference in public facilities in Singapore. Lots of pristine public restrooms, lots of ones where if you get out without puking you're lucky. Very few in the middle. Would help to eliminate the times when you walk in, only to quickly walk out without accomplishing your task. Love the Sing gub'mint on it's continuing drive to grow out of a situation where it is simply a 3rd world country with a polished, thin veneer of a supposed utopia. That's key to Sing's continued success. Tough to continue to sell a brand new car at a premium price when the only thing brand new about the car is the paint job.

Three things. First, I posted on this not becaue of the bathroom issue itself, but because the bathroom issue in Singapore is a microcosm for the entire state of the island. Second, I wish a visually apparant rating system would be put in place in the U.S. Not nearly as bad here as in Sing, but it'd be nice to see nonetheless. Nope, not the gub'mint involved, but a private sector ratings system. Would be great to ISO (so to speak) U.S. public restrooms. Then let the free market decide where to stop for gas, etc. Would work wonders for cleaning up public restrooms. Third, why do you think Singapore needs all of these rules and regulations to manage things of this nature? Let's see......Sing's gub'mint isn't a liberal pit of control for the sake of control, so that's not it. So why could it be that such measures (which often seem so ridiculous to Americans) are brought into being in Singapore?

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