Mr. Toilet, World Toilet Association founder Sim Jae-duck, dies

Sim Jae-duck. Photo: WTA

Nicknamed “Mr. Toilet”, the Korean sanitation campaigner and founder and first president of the World Toilet Association (WTA), Sim Jae-duck died on 14 January 2009. Parliament member Sim Jae-duck earned his nickname for improving public restrooms for the 2002 Football World Cup as mayor of Suwon city. Since 1999 he was president of the Korea Toilet Association.

Sim Jae-duck grabbed the headlines in November 2007 when he unveiled

'Haewoojae', Sim Jae-duck's toilet house. Photo: WTA

his toilet-shaped house on the eve of the inaugural meeting of the World Toilet Association General Assembly (WTAA).

“He had been suffering from prostate cancer since he began a campaign to launch his World Toilet Association in 2007,” association spokesperson Shon Seong-Jin said.

“But he continued his campaign until his death.”

Sim was born in a restroom – in line with then-traditional beliefs that this would bring good luck – and once said he planned to die in the $1.6-million toilet house he designed.

Source: Sapa-AFP / IOL, 14 Jan 2009

Brazil, Costa Rica: Sabesp to sign international cooperation agreement with AyA on 9 Jan 2009

São Paulo state water utility Sabesp [from Brazil] will sign its first international agreement on January 9 with Costa Rican state water utility AyA. [...] The five-year agreement contemplates commercial, legal and management cooperation between the two companies. The utilities will identify areas of common interest before signing specific contracts, through which Sabesp will transfer technology to implement programs, such as combating water losses. [Sabesp] will also provide advice in areas such as construction, operation, financing, production, distribution, collection, treatment and sewage disposal.

Source: BNAmericas [subscription site], 08 Jan 2008

Chab Chean: Cambodian comedian takes rural sanitation to the Kingdom’s TVs

Comedian Chab Chean. Photo: PHOTO SUPPLIED

TV personality Chab Chean has been chosen as the government’s spokesperson in a push to promote sanitation throughout the countryside.

The government is hoping a little toilet humour will go a long ways in bringing its pro-sanitation message to the countryside, where millions live without access to running water and the nearest rice field often passes for the bathroom.

Only about 16 percent of rural Cambodians have access to toilets, according to the World Bank-sponsored Water and Sanitation Program. In some parts of the country, that figure can drop below five percent.

[...] “Many people in the countryside come around when they see Chab Chean educating them about the program, which is different from being told by local authorities,” [Chea Samnang, director of the Department of Rural Health at the Ministry of Rural Development] said. “As a local TV comedian and presenter, Chab Chean has been considered an excellent model in encouraging Cambodian people to cooperate with local authorities so that they know how to live in a clean environment and how to use toilets”.

“We have many methods of encouraging people in the countryside to help spread knowledge about rural sanitation. We show them through our jokes so that they are interested and happy, and they will never get bored,” Chab Chean said.

Source: Khoun Leakhana, Phnom Penh Post, 23 Dec 2008

The Razoo 100: Water and Sanitation

Online donation platform Razoo selected a “top 100” organizations from their database of over 1.6 million registered in the US, split over 20 categories. In the category water and sanitation, Razoo chose the following organisations:

• Charity: Water
• American Jewish World Service (AJWS)
• Living Water International (LWI)
• Water for People
• Playpumps International, Inc

Source: Razoo 100: Water and Sanitation