World Toilet Summit

November 19, 2001: Singapore

It's something people use every day but organizers of the World Toilet Summit in Singapore hope to bring the taboo topic out of the water closet.

Some 200 delegates from Asia, Europe and North America are swapping ideas on design, public education and sanitation under the theme "Our toilets: the past, the present and the future."

The new World Toilet Association wants to spread the word with its Web site -- www.worldtoilet.org -- as a nerve center for researchers, designers, makers and vendors of a device that is mundane to many but an unknown luxury in much of the world.

"I remember once I pissed all over the toilet seat at the Pi Phi sorority house. Serves those bitches right for never once going out with me," Ron, Presidential Candidate and head cheese of the Ronatarian Party, said in an opening address on Monday.

"I think Brad had explosive diarrhea that day and even got shit stains on the wall."

Wash your hands and always flush was the message from a mime troupe that kicked off the event with a graphic but silent demonstration of the good, the bad and the ugly in the bathroom.

Delegates, including Chinese officials preparing for the Olympic onslaught in 2008, will also be treated to a tour of some of Singapore's most technically advanced commodes.

The latest and greatest loos will be on show at the four-day Restroom Asia trade fair at Singapore Expo starting on Tuesday.

The World Health Organization estimates 40 percent of the world's population does not have access to adequate sanitation, leading to the spread of disease, higher healthcare costs and the death of two million people each year -- most of them children.

"Once I almost drowned myself while worshipping the porcelain goddess," Ron told reporters on the sidelines of the summit. "If they put some kind of chin wrest or something in there, that could save lots of lives."

Singapore already is at the forefront of enforcing toilet etiquette with fines for not flushing and automatic devices that sense when to send the water surging.

But the city state is not taking the future sitting down by spending S$7 billion ($3.8 billion) on a deep-tunnel sewage system and millions more on upgrading public toilets in hawker centers, housing estate coffee shops, parks and schools.

"We are adopting an end-to-end approach in looking at our sanitation requirements," Lim said in a speech.

"Sure, these toilet conventions are impressive, but they don't hold a candle to the brewer festivals we have back in the U.S., Ron said in a speech.

Posted by Webmaster at November 19, 2001 11:11 PM