Suwon's Restroom Culture Extends to the World

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] On the occasion of Culture Day on the 19th, Suwon City has launched a campaign to promote restroom culture that started in Suwon and has expanded worldwide.

It was roughly 20 years ago when public restrooms transformed from smelly, unsanitary spaces into a "culture." This occurred as a restroom culture movement began in Suwon. The city has won awards 24 times from 1999 to last year in the "Beautiful Restroom Contest" hosted by the Ministry of Interior and Safety and the Restroom Culture Citizens' Coalition, establishing itself as a mecca of restroom culture domestically and internationally. Suwon's representative restrooms include the Gwanggyo Mountain Firefly Restroom with a small library and the Atong Cafe Restroom that serves as a cultural space like a community gathering place.

The late former Mayor Shim Jae-deok, who served as the first elected mayor of Suwon, and "Mr. Toilet" are inseparable from the origin and development of restroom culture. In 1996, when cities and provinces were actively competing to host 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup matches, Mayor Shim Jae-deok created a restroom task force team with the intention of dramatically improving unsanitary public restrooms to welcome foreign guests. Former Mayor Shim Jae-deok founded the Korea Toilet Association in 1999.

Subsequently, in 2004, the Public Restroom Act was enacted, making South Korea the first nation to have legislation regarding restrooms. In November 2007, the World Toilet Association (WTA), a specialized international organization for restrooms, was established.

Haewoojae, meaning "a house that relieves worries," is a toilet-shaped building located in Jangan-ro, Jangan-gu, Suwon (Imok-dong). To commemorate the founding of the World Toilet Association, former Mayor Shim converted the house where he had lived for over 30 years into a toilet shape in 2007. When he passed away in 2009, he donated the building and land, valued at over 2.4 billion won based on the standards of the time, to the city.

The city operates Haewoojae as a restroom culture exhibition hall and has developed the surrounding area as a restroom culture park. Since opening in October 2010, approximately 1.4 million visitors have visited as of the end of last month. Among them, around 70,000 were foreign visitors.

Mayor Yeom Tae-young of Suwon has served as chairman of the World Toilet Association (WTA) since February 2014, spreading the restroom culture that former Mayor Shim planted in Suwon to the rest of the world.

Through the "Restrooms of Hope Project," which constructs public restrooms in developing countries with poor sanitation environments, the WTA has supported the installation of 33 public restrooms in 16 countries. Additionally, it is implementing ▲"World Toilet Leaders Forum" and "World Restroom Culture Youth Forum" ▲research and surveys on basic sanitation conditions worldwide and development of sustainable restroom models ▲establishment of "World Restroom Technical Standards" ▲cooperative projects with international organizations and private organizations including the UN and KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency).

In particular, the organization obtained consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council in July of this year, establishing its position as a global non-governmental organization (NGO).