Cover Singaporean entrepreneur Jack Sim, aka Mr.Toilet (Photo: Instagram / @worldtoiletorg)
Singaporean entrepreneur Jack Sim, aka Mr.Toilet (Photo: Instagram / @worldtoiletorg)
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Singaporean entrepreneur Jack Sim, also known as Mr Toilet, has worked with governments from Singapore, China, Brazil and India to improve sanitation conditions. For World Toilet Day, he talks to Tatler about why the lack of access to toilets endangers women more
At the very beginning of his interview with Tatler, Jack Sim sets the tone: “Everybody thinks World Toilet Day is a joke, but it’s a really serious matter.”
For decades, the serial entrepreneur from Singapore has been raising awareness of toilet culture through humour and lobbying efforts. He’s recognised as one of the most active players in solving the global sanitation crisis. It started with the founding of the Restroom Association of Singapore in 1998 before Sim took the fight to another level in 2001 when he founded the World Toilet Organisation, an international NGO focused on sanitation. He has since worked with the United Nations and leaders from Singapore, China, India, Brazil and more to coordinate sanitation efforts.
For World Toilet Day, which falls on November 19, we sat down with Sim to discuss why it’s a serious issue and also why women are more endangered by the lack of access to safe and hygienic toilets.
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Do you think our attitude towards toilets is largely lackadaisical?
What’s interesting about toilet matters is that nobody wants to talk about it, but everybody has to go: this discrepancy slows down the solutions we need to find. So before I opened up this conversation years ago, very few people were discussing it. But once I opened the door, so many people came forward to support the cause.
How does the lack of accessibility to clean and safe toilets impact us?
There are three major points to look at:
- Death and illness prevention: Two million people—half of whom are children under the age of 5—die of diarrhoea every year because, among others, of poor sanitation. These deaths can be prevented by having access to clean public toilets and something to wash hands with.
- Economy growth: Toilets that aren’t up to standards are polluting the environment. The first examples that come to mind are rivers and water bodies, but it can be taken to the level of restaurants where cooks don’t have access to clean toilets and “pollute” the food they’re cooking. In both cases, there’s a loss of land value appreciation when everybody becomes sick. The economy of these places cannot flourish in these conditions. Another example I found in Singapore is that women are lining up to the bathroom for longer than men—which means that companies are losing time and money—by not investing in a more equalitarian toilet system.
- Physical safety: It makes women and girls more vulnerable to abuse, attack and thus ill-health.
Above Singaporean entrepreneur Jack Sim, aka Mr Toilet (Photo: Tatler Singapore / Darren Gabriel Leow)
Singaporean entrepreneur Jack Sim, aka Mr Toilet (Photo: Tatler Singapore / Darren Gabriel Leow)
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How are the safety and health of women more affected by the lack of access to toilets?
More than half of the world’s population can’t access a safe and hygienic toilet. In these situations, women and girls suffer more than their male counterparts—as it makes them more vulnerable to abuse, attack and ill-health, affecting their ability to study, work and live in dignity.
A lot of people can’t imagine how life-threatening “going to the bathroom” can be for certain women. I’ve heard too many stories about women being assaulted because they were forced to go outdoors to find somewhere discreet to go to the toilet. Women shouldn’t be so threatened that they’d have to restrict the number of times they go find bathrooms, during the day only, in groups and armed in certain cases.
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What does the future of toilets look like?
The future of toilets looks like a predictive and preventive health device. The toilet can collect your urine and faeces sample, and can even measure other biometrics, and then it can tell you long before you have serious problems.
For example, colorectal cancer kills a lot of men and it is possible to predict and diagnose [these conditions] from faeces while you’re doing your business. So I think if a toilet can predict diseases and prevent them, the future of the toilet is a lifesaver.
This August, Jack Sim released his first book, “The Gumption of Mr Toilet” with the Penguin Publishing Group. This story tells of how he overcame challenges to become a successful serial entrepreneur and an ultra-successful serial social entrepreneur, changing the world by mobilising global movements. You can find it on Amazon.com.
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Salomé Grouard was Digital Editor and Front & Female Content Lead at Tatler Hong Kong. Primarily focused on managing Tatler Hong Kong’s digital platform and content, she also covers gender equality, the music scene and sports through interviews with industry leaders, experts and trendsetters.
Interview highlights include renowned conservationist Dr Jane Goodall, Korean actor Park Seo Jun, singer Jorja Smith, Chinese TV host Yue-Sai Kan, YouTuber Kimono Mom, Japanese rapper Awich, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter Mikey Musumeci.
She has also produced stories on revolutionising sexual wellness in Asia, activism within the surfing community, Asian trans musicians reclaiming their narratives through music and looked at the toxicity of gym culture through the lens of the plus-size community. She also covers music festivals, such as Hong Kong’s Clockenflap and Bali’s Suara.
