Saturday January 1, 2011

Cho going all out to set world toilet standards
By FOONG PEK YEE
pekyee@thestar.com.my

PERHAPS

Dr Cho Yong-Ee, who has an illustrious career in the corporate sector spanning over four decades, never dreamt that he has to go on a clean toilet mission around the world one day.

More so when he is already in his 70’s and that the mission is something new to him.

But he is left with little or no choice as it is a responsibility given to him by his close friend of 20 years, the late Sim Jae-Duck.

Sim, the founder and first president of the World Toilet Associa-tion (WTA), had two weeks before his death on Jan 14, 2009, conveyed his wish to Cho.
Cho: Going all out to set world toilet standards.

Cho took over the helm of WTA in February the same year.
WTA, set up in 2007, has members from 67 countries, including Malaysia.

At 73, and two years into his mission, Cho, who has a doctorate in mechanical engineering, has, first of all, turned Sim’s “toilet house” into a museum — the first floor displays the history of toilets in South Korea while the second floor houses Sim’s memorial.

Sim had in 2008 made world news when he renovated his house into the shape of a toilet and named it Haewoojae (meaning a place to solve one’s woes in Korean).
Apart from the museum, Cho, also a former professor, said he would go all out to set world toilet standards and collaborate with the World Health Organisation and Unicef to bring the topic on sanitation to a new level.

“We (WTA) are gearing to become a United Nations affiliated organisation as well as a specialised UN organisation,” said Cho of WTA’s targets in the next six years.

He expressed hope that via such an affiliation, WTA could rally to put the importance of proper toilet facilities at par with food and drinking water during disasters like floods.

Apart from famine and malnutrition, poor sanitation also kills millions of children every year, he said, adding that every human being has the right to access to proper toilet facilities.

Besides building proper toilets in selected developing countries, Cho said WTA also made it compulsory for the countries concerned to take part in toilet education and maintenance programmes upon completion of the toilets.
“Proper sanitation facilities can only be sustained via proper usage and maintenance,” he noted.

WTA has public toilet building projects in 13 countries so far, including Cambodia, Mongolia, Indonesia, China, Laos , Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, Nepal and Vietnam.

Cho and WTA’s head of international cooperation Ray Yoo were on a two-day visit to Malaysia recently and they, together with WTA vice-president John Loh, paid a courtesy call to Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung at the ministry.

Back in South Korea, Cho said they would continue to promote unique and clean toilets as famous tourists spots.

In Gyeonggi Province for instance, there is a toilet in the shape of a piano, followed by another one in the shape of a snail, he said.

The steps leading to the toilet is in the form of piano keys and you will be accompanied by music as you walk up to the toilet.

Cho noted with pride that many developing countries have been looking up to Korea as the leader in the development and management of clean public toilets.

Sim, a former mayor of Suwon, started the clean toilet campaign in Suwon in 1995 and formed the Korea Toilet Association two years later to reach out to other parts of Korea.

Public toilets in South Korea is certainly among the best in the world but Cho said there is always room for improvement, and he wants to promote clean public toilets as everybody’s concern, be it in his country or abroad.