Suwon Mayor Lee Jae-jun: "Suwon Will Work to Make Clean Toilets a Universal Right for Humanity"

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-seong] Suwon Mayor Lee Jae-jun announced, "Suwon City will faithfully work to ensure that clean toilets become established as a universal right for humanity."

Lee, who serves as the 6th chairman of the World Toilet Association (WTA), posted this message on his Facebook account on November 19, World Toilet Day, and stated, "Suwon City has supplied 'Made in Suwon Toilets' to 26 locations across 10 countries," adding, "By the end of this year, toilets built by Suwon City are scheduled to open in two countries, including Laos."

Suwon City is a center of beautiful toilet culture. Suwon City's "Daeyupy Toilet" was selected as the silver prize (Minister of Interior and Safety Award) at the "25th Beautiful Toilet Grand Prize Competition" jointly hosted by the Ministry of Interior and Safety and the Beautiful Toilet Culture Citizens Alliance on October 16. Including this award, the city has won 29 times in the "Beautiful Toilet Competition," solidifying its status as a "premium toilet city."

Beginning with "Gwanggyo Mountain Firefly Toilet," which won the grand prize at the 1st competition in 1999, "Gwanggyo Central Park Toilet" (2015) and "Toilet Next to Art Museum" (2020) were selected for the grand prize. Additionally, there have been three gold prizes, nine silver prizes, nine bronze prizes, and four special prizes.

Suwon City is establishing "Suwon Public Toilets" in various developing countries. Suwon Public Toilets were established through Suwon City's public toilet construction support project for developing countries, which has been pursued since 2014.

There are 26 Suwon Public Toilets in 10 countries including Laos, Cambodia, Nepal, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Philippines, Turkey, Myanmar, Mongolia, and Zambia, located at famous tourist attractions such as Luang Prabang's Kuang Si Waterfall in Laos and the Angkor Wat archaeological site in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Suwon City plans to replace squat toilets with Western-style toilets at schools with high rates of squat toilet installation. The city has set a goal of reducing the proportion of squat toilets to 7% of all toilets by 2024. It plans to reduce the proportion of squat toilets to 3% by 2026.

To improve public toilets, the city will remodel aging facilities and replace 41 squat toilets at 20 out of 32 public toilet locations with Western-style toilets. As of November this year, emergency bells that transmit emergency alerts to police have been installed at 68 public toilet locations, with plans to install them at 60 locations in 2024 and 48 locations in 2025. Convenience items (tissue, disposable bags, hand soap) are currently provided at open-access restrooms, and starting in 2024, the city plans to provide additional operational funding to expand and operate open-access restrooms.