VOLUNTEERISM IS UNPAID LABOUR

SINGAPORE
Initiative to keep coffee shop toilets clean ropes in neighbourhood residents

The volunteer residents will work with coffee shop operators to ensure that the toilets are well-maintained and clean. 

ST PHOTO: GIN TAY

Ryan Goh
ST

SINGAPORE - Jurong East resident Bhuvaneswari Mahendran visits a coffee shop in her neighbourhood every other day. Apart from surveying what to eat and drink, she - and other volunteers - will soon check out its toilets too.

The costume and jewellery business owner, 54, who has lived in the area for 24 years, has joined a scheme that was launched on Saturday (May 21) by Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu.

It will rope in volunteers who will work with the operators of coffee shops to ensure that the toilets are well-maintained and clean.

Said Ms Fu: "It is really important for us to have clean public toilets, because a nasty one can see germs and viruses go around in the community. This is to ensure personal, public as well as food hygiene."

First announced last month by the Public Hygiene Council, the volunteers, who are called the Neighbourhood Toilets Community Group, will visit their neighbourhood coffee shops regularly to remind and educate users on good toilet etiquette.

Public Hygiene Council chairman Edward D'Silva said: "We believe that we should inculcate a sense of personal responsibility both from the owners of the coffee shop as well as the end users. If they use the toilets, then we hope to encourage them to keep it clean themselves and not rely on cleaners."

Currently, the initiative is in its pilot phase, and involves three coffee shops - Meetup @ 494 in Block 494 Jurong West Street 41, Get Together in Block 429 Jurong West Avenue 1, and PDSS 318 Food Cafeteria in Block 318 Jurong East Street 31, where the launch took place.

The volunteers, who are members of Yuhua and Jurong Central's Grassroots Organisation, will inform coffee shop owners if the flushing system, dryers, soap dispensers and tissue rolls are not working or need to be replenished.

In addition, the toilets will be decorated to look like home toilets so that the public can better relate to these spaces.

Praising the initiative, Madam Bhuvaneswari said: "We always like cleanliness, and we are very particular about it in our homes. So we also hope to ensure standards are kept outside our homes, such that members of the public have a more pleasant experience when using them."

Another volunteer, retired refinery processor Teo Tian Seng, 68, who has lived in the area for 38 years, said: "We hope eventually that this initiative can expand to the whole of Singapore, such that when foreigners come, they will have a good impression of the hygiene standards here."

Ms Fu said the involvement of volunteers in the initiative is what makes it important.

"I think this is a really good initiative because having co-ownership, both the owners as well as the users working together to raise the level of hygiene is an important way for society where social graciousness makes a mark among us as Singaporeans," she added.