Lee Jae-jun, Suwon Mayor, Elected as 7th Chairman of WTA

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] Lee Jae-jun, mayor of Suwon Special City, was elected as the 7th chairman of WTA (World Toilet Association) at the WTA's 7th general meeting held on the 27th at the Suwon City Hall conference room.

Mayor Lee Jae-jun said, "With the belief that 'toilets are human rights,' I will create an environment where everyone can use toilets comfortably," and urged, "Please continue to join us as you do now."

On the 28th, the 10th World Toilet Leaders Forum (WTLF) of WTA will be held at the Suwon Toilet Culture Museum (Hae-u-jae) under the theme 'Next-Gen Toilets for a Changing World.'

This year's forum will be attended by delegations from 13 countries totaling 40 people, as well as approximately 100 experts from home and abroad. It will broadly address future toilet agendas including △climate crisis response-type toilet policies △AI (artificial intelligence) and IoT (Internet of Things) based sanitation management technology △inclusive space design △the role of toilets in urban culture.

The forum will begin with a keynote speech by Song Deok-geun, author of "Please Take Care of Toilets," followed by 12 presentations across 4 sessions on topics including △climate crisis and toilets △AI and IoT-based smart sanitation technology △inclusive design and toilets as urban spaces.

The forum will not only include lectures and discussions, but also feature field trips to directly observe Suwon City's smart toilet system, sewage and ecological treatment-based sanitation infrastructure, and universal design demonstration spaces.

Participants will verify the content learned in the sessions on-site and, based on this, conduct workshops to design 'country-specific action plans' that can be applied by each nation.

Suwon City and WTA plan to use this forum as an opportunity to share with the international community an urban sanitation innovation model centered on toilets, and to expand the 'Suwon-style toilet policy' as a global standardization platform.

WTA is an international NGO (non-governmental organization) established in 2007 at the proposal of the late Shim Jae-deok, former mayor of Suwon, who was passionate about toilet culture movement. It aims to improve the health and sanitation standards of people worldwide through clean toilets. WTA obtained special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council in 2019 and is conducting projects to support public toilet installation in developing countries and international toilet culture exchange programs under the goal of 'Sanitation for All.'

To date, it has supported the construction of 51 public toilets in 19 countries, and plans to complete a public toilet at Wat Wisunnarath, the oldest temple in Luang Prabang, Laos, a UNESCO World Heritage city, by December of this year.