World Toilet Organization

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World Toilet
Organization (WTO)
logo
founding 2001
founder Jack Sim
Seat SingaporeSingapore Singapore
main emphasis Improving global sanitation
method Enlightenment, educational work, technical development cooperation
Action space Worldwide
Website www.worldtoilet.org

The World Toilet Organization , briefly WTO for World Toilet Organization is a non-profit international non-governmental organization (NGO) with the aim of the situation of sanitation to improve the world. The World Toilet Organization is an umbrella organization of national toilet organizations and, according to its own information, now has 235 member organizations from 58 countries.

Founding history

Jack Sim, President of the World Toilet Organization, 2010

The World Toilet Organization was founded in Singapore in 2001 by the entrepreneur Jack Sim (* 1961). The reason for his engagement is given as a newspaper article in which the Prime Minister of Singapore, Goh Chok Tong , said that the state of a country's public toilets says a lot about the social system. With a view to the state of the public toilets in his country, Sim founded a toilet organization in Singapore in 1998 and made improving the hygiene situation his life's work . Three years later he founded the World Toilet Organization , of which he is still chairman today. He has since given up his previous entrepreneurial activity.

Basis of work

According to the World Toilet Organization, hygienic and functional toilets are a necessity and a fundamental human right . They mean dignity and are a symbol of the progress of a society. There is a lack of toilets for 2.5 billion people in the developing world .

At the same time, out of upbringing and habit, many people refuse to be in a narrow space with their excrement. If excrement is considered unclean, toilets are often also viewed as unclean, so that a rethink and understanding of hygiene must be achieved. So z. In India, for example, in around 40% of households with a toilet, at least one person goes outside to relieve themselves.

Toilets are an important step in improving hygiene. But if their disposal is inadequate due to a lack of sewer systems or sewage treatment plants , the problem of contamination of rivers , groundwater and the soil remains unsolved. Therefore, numerous people continue to be infected with diseases . It is estimated that 6,000 children die every day from diarrhea alone . Often these are caused by poor hygiene and unclean sewage. Many dangerous diseases, such as the often fatal lung disease SARS , can also be transmitted through unclean sanitary facilities.

tasks and goals

The World Toilet Organization sees itself as a network of international experts and national institutions that deal with toilet and sewage systems. One of the goals of the World Toilet Organization is to contribute to the fulfillment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals . Millennium Development Goal No. 7c calls for the proportion of the world population that lives without access to drinking water and basic sanitation to be halved by 2015. In 2008, 38 percent of the world's population lived without access. At the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (2002) to include sanitation for the world population, development goal no.7c calls for the proportion of the world population who live without adequate and permanent access to drinking water to be 11 percent by 2015 and the proportion of the world population without basic sanitation lives to lower 23 percent. Partners are ASHOKA and others.

activities

Today, the World Toilet Organization includes various organizations, government agencies and universities from around the world. The World Toilet Organization initiated the World Toilet Summit, which usually takes place annually . So far it has been held at the following locations:

World Toilet Day logo

The organization pushed for the recognition of the World Toilet Day , which takes place annually on November 19th - until 2013 parallel to the World Toilet Summit . On July 24, 2013, the General Assembly of the United Nations unanimously, at the suggestion of Singapore, declared November 19 to be UN World Toilet Day, in the fight for basic sanitation and sanitary facilities.

The efforts to increase public awareness of basic sanitation are supported by the UN Commissioner for Water and Basic Sanitation, Uschi Eid .

The World Toilet College was opened in Singapore on November 19, 2005 . Experts in sanitary systems are trained there. The college sees itself as an independent institution where the best possible solutions for toilet systems in terms of usability, hygiene, entertainment and protection of the environment can be learned. For this purpose, training programs on various topics from the areas of hygiene and sanitary systems are offered. The World Toilet College is also a mobile facility i.e. H. The training courses take place not only in Singapore, but also wherever they are needed. The training facility is headed by the German biogas and wastewater expert Heinz-Peter Mang .

The organization tries to attract attention for its work through actions in the public area.

Partner organizations and cooperation partners

The WTO acts as the interface of a global network consisting of independent organizations. It promotes the exchange of information and knowledge between these partners. Non-governmental organizations as well as state (local, national) and supranational institutions can become members of the WTO. Membership is free.

German partner of the World Toilet Organization is the German Toilet Organization e. V. (GTO) based in Berlin. It has been officially registered as an association since January 2006 and is now recognized as a non-profit organization. The organization is headed by Thilo Panzerbieter.

Selection of some other partner organizations:

  • Restroom Association (Singapore)
  • Japan Toilet Association
  • Korea Clean Toilet Association
  • Taiwan Toilet Association
  • Australia toilet
  • Beijing Tourism Bureau
  • British Toilet Association
  • Global Sanitet Club Finland (formerly Finland Toilet Association )
  • Gramalaya, India
  • Indonesia Toilet Association
  • Malaysia Toilet Committee
  • Moscow Toilet Association
  • Paruresis Society, USA
  • Society of Continence
  • Sulabh International
  • Toilet & Toilet India
  • Philippines Toilet Association
  • Metroped Inc
  • South African Toilet Organization

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Leadership. Accessed March 29, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Annette Jensen: Toilet activist for World Water Day: "Shit is considered unprintable" . In: The daily newspaper: taz . March 22, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on May 3, 2019]).
  3. ^ Jack Sim: Thinking and talking about toilets. (No longer available online.) August 1, 2007, archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; accessed on May 26, 2009 .
  4. ↑ Water Champion: Jack Sim. Flushing Down the Toilet Taboo. (No longer available online.) Asian Development Bank, August 2007, archived from the original on December 29, 2011 ; accessed on May 26, 2009 .
  5. ↑ a b Unicef ​​/ WHO: MDG assessment report (2008): Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation. (No longer available online.) 2008, archived from the original on March 11, 2009 ; Retrieved May 26, 2009 .
  6. ↑ Nicola Meier : Mr. Toilet , DIE ZEIT, May 13, 2015, p. 13 ff
  7. ↑ Partners & Friends. Retrieved March 29, 2019 .
  8. ↑ World Toilet Summit 2017
  9. ↑ World Toilet Summit 2018
  10. ↑ UN designates November 19 as UN World Toilet Day , accessed on July 23, 2016.
  11. ↑ Michael Lenz: Clean makes you happy. From water and sewage: today the world toilet summit begins in Bangkok. In: Berliner Zeitung. November 16, 2006, accessed May 25, 2009 .
  12. ↑ International Year of Basic Sanitation 2008. (No longer available online.) German Society for the United Nations e. V., archived from the original on January 3, 2009 ; Retrieved May 25, 2009 .
  13. ↑ Need is my religion. Retrieved March 29, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Klaus A. Boldt: German Toilet Organization thematizes with an extraordinary exhibition the need with the urge. In: Development Policy Online. March 8, 2006, Retrieved May 25, 2009 .
  15. ↑ German Toilet Organization thematizes the need with the urge with an extraordinary exhibition. Retrieved March 29, 2019 .
  16. ↑ WTO Membership ( Memento from December 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive )