Jack Sim: Flushing Away the World’s Problems
Build a toilet, save the world? The answer is yes and we have tracked down toilet man himself for this exclusive interview!
Jack Sim: JS
iCUBED.us Interviewer: Chris Lau
iCUBED.us: When did the bolt of inspiration hit you to become an advocate for toilets and sanitation? Where does your motivation come from?
JS: At 40, I've made some money, happily married with 4 kids, and I start to ask myself: "So what's the next big thing to do?" I looked at my ultra-high net-worth neighbors and decided that no matter how hard I worked, I cannot be the richest man even on my own street. That's when I realized that money cannot be the currency of my life.
A person lives about 80 years. I don't get more time even if I can get more money. Time is therefore the currency of life, and I must find purpose and meaning when spending these moments as they fade away.
That was when I read the newspaper one morning and there was Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong saying "Singaporeans should measure our graciousness by the cleanliness of our public toilets".
I started Restroom Association in 1998 and later when I realized there were 15 toilet associations without HQ, I started World Toilet Organization. Today, we've 153 chapters in 53 countries.
iCUBED.us: Why do you think there are so many taboos around the concept of toilets? Do the taboos hinder the work of the WTO?
JS: When there is weakness, there is strength. Toilets are a taboo because our egos pretend that since we are beautiful people, we must not admit that we are capable of producing a pungent smell. At childhood, mothers would teach their kids never to speak about toilets if they want to be respected also to stop embarrassing us in front of guest especially during meals. Later, during schooling, they were warned that if they don't study well, they might end up as toilet cleaners! So the stigma sticks (toilet and related things are somehow 'shameful').
While nobody talks about toilets, I found that if I add humor to it, the media loves it! So I took it to center-stage and the global media has been writing about it vigorously in the last eight years. Politicians, academia, UN agencies, and people in the street are now talking toilets more than ever before. We declared our founding day, 19 November, as World Toilet Day that is celebrated world-wide each year and this year, it has again taken the world by storm. I like to think I have broken the taboo on toilets forever!
iCUBED.us: So do better toilets and better sanitation lead to a more progressive society? How are the concepts of sanitation linked to economic development?
JS: The toilet is one of the best inventions in human history. Sanitation is the cheapest preventive medicine in the world. When good sanitation brings hygiene, you get healthy people who can work and produce. This is the essential passport out of poverty. When children have intestinal worms, they are tired and sleep in class. They learn less and lack nutrition with the worms sharing a large portion. Such conditions are not good for growth. Having no toilets means flies visit poop and food and diseases are also transmitted by fingers, feet, fluid, etc. When a child is sick, parents can't work and income is lost. Illness often brings the poor to dire straits.
Singapore was a third world country in 1960s. I grew up watching our toilets improve parallel with our economic growth. Health is wealth.
iCUBED.us: What have been the World Toilet Organization’s greatest achievements to date? What would a normal sanitation project entail?
JS: WTO is an umbrella group and a service platform for collaboration in all toilet and sanitation action. It started as a 1-man-show in 2001 and now we have 8 full-time staff for our secretariat coordinating with 153 members in 53 countries matching resources to best practices to ideas to researches to media to financing to markets, etc. After the tsunami, we built public toilets in Aceh and Sri Lanka. We also partner Lien Aid in China and Cambodia.
Yet, the main problem of toilets and sanitation was about the lack of conversation. What we can't discuss, we can't improve. WTO has facilitated by opening up the space for the conversation and in raising the status of toilets through clever leveraging of high level leaders and platforms like World Economic Forums and Clinton Global Initiatives, people saw it as their permission to speak freely on the subject now.
Our greatest achievement to-date is in media branding toilets and sanitation and giving it global visibility and legitimacy so that the conversation flows from problems to ideas to solutions. And we did it at virtually zero cost.
iCUBED.us: How successful are the respective World Toilet Days, World Toilet College, World Toilet Summits, World Toilet Expos and Forums? How is interest generated and who attends?
JS: World Toilet Day has been a massive success. Just google it and see the many celebrations this year.
-World Toilet College has established 2 courses:
The Japanese standard Restroom Specialist Course for professionalizing the toilet cleaners and the Ecological Sanitation Course for designing rural and slum's stand-lone sanitation treatment solution!
We are still in early days of expansion and need plenty of resources to scale up the numbers of trainers.
-World Toilet Summit & Expo is our annual event and it's been to:
Singapore 2001 open by Minister of Health, Seoul 2002 hosted by Suwon City Mayor, Taipei 2003 open by Taiwan Toilet Association Vice-Mayor, Beijing 2004 hosted by Beijing Tourism Bureau, Belfast 2005 open by Lord Mayor Belfast, Moscow 2006 hosted by Russian Toilet Association and Mayor of Moscow, New Delhi 2007 hosted by Sulabh International and open by President Abdul Kalam, and Macau 2008 hosted by Asian Development Bank and open by Crown Prince of Holland.
-World Toilet Forum & Expo 2005 was hosted by Shanghai City Appearance and Sanitation Administrative Bureau and 2006 by Thailand Ministry of Public Health in Bangkok.
iCUBED.us: How do local communities react to your sanitation projects? How does the WTO measure success?
JS: We are yet to find effective quantitative measurements but qualitatively, any intelligent person can see the change in the world's perception and behavior towards the subject of toilets and sanitation in the last 8 years was phenomenal.
Local community leaders are responding positively and we like to think that having the legitimacy now could help them do their work better. We continue to facilitate solutions and are now investing heavily in creating an efficient sanitation market infrastructure of demand, supply, distributions, financing, co-buying, etc.
iCUBED.us: When did the ‘toilet man’ label first arise? Do you secretly like the name?
JS: I love the name. It gives me the satisfaction and recognition of my work.
iCUBED.us: Is the World Toilet Organization more effective than the World Trade Organization?
JS: We both work hard in improving the state of Big and Small "Businesses". I borrowed their acronym but to a good cause. When we were in Nairobi's UNEP meeting 2 years ago, Achim Steiner, head of UNEP introduces us as the 3 WTOs: World Trade, World Tourism and World Toilet Organizations.
iCUBED.us: Where are the best toilets in the world? What would make up the perfect toilet?
JS: The best is always a safe, clean and comfortable/enjoyable place to visit and find physical and spiritual relief. It needs not be frivolous or fancy. It's like A B C
Architecture ergonomically designed and according to the person's work flow! Behavior will respond to environmental conditions. Cleaning and maintenance to be professionally trained and supplies like soap, water, paper, etc to be constant.
iCUBED.us: Tell the iCUBED.us readers something they don’t know about toilets!
JS: Ask yourself how many times you visit the toilet a day. Start counting. Measure the time of your visit the next time you pee and poop. Add the times and multiply by 80 years X 365 days. You might find the answer to be 3 years non-stop in the toilets!
iCUBED.us: Got any decent toilet jokes for us?
JS: Never had a decent one! All toilet jokes are "DIRTY" jokes.
Jack Sim Biography (WTO Website)
After attaining financial independence at the age of 40, Jack decided to devote the rest of his life to social work. In 2001, Jack created the World Toilet Organization (WTO) as a global network and service platform wherein the various toilet associations, academia, government, UN agencies and toilet stakeholders can learn from one another and leverage on media and corporate support to influence governments to promote sound sanitation and public health policies.
In 2004, he was awarded the inaugural Singapore Green Plan Award 2012 by Singapore's National Environment Agency for contribution to Environment.
In 2005, Jack founded the World Toilet College to provide high quality training in Toilet Design, Maintenance, Cleanliness and Ecological Sanitation Technologies. The college is a joint venture with Singapore Polytechnic.
Jack won the Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006, awarded by The Schwab Foundation For Social Entrepreneurship based in Switzerland.
In 2007, Jack became one of the key members to convene the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance comprised of about 50 organizations active in the field of sanitation. That same year, he also became the first Singaporean elected to be an Ashoka Global Fellow. Ashoka is the largest social entrepreneurship support group in the world.
In January 2008, Jack was appointed a Council Member to the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council for Water Security, a Council that advises WEF on water and sanitation matters. And in May of the same year he was named a Council Member to WEF's Global Agenda Council for Social Entrepreneur. Time Magazine named him Hero of the Environment 2008.
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