Flevoland's Toilet-Friendliest Municipality is Northeast Polder

Jan. 31, 2023

On Saturday, November 19, 2022, it was World Toilet Day. On this day, attention is paid to the importance of good sanitation and access to clean and safe toilets for all.

In the Netherlands, there is work to be done because from recent research has shown that one in five people regularly stay home because of the lack of toilets. It is therefore safe to say that this is a social problem. To draw attention to this problem on World Toilet Day we annually make the well-known ranking of "the most toilet-friendly municipality of the Netherlands" is announced. But not only on World Toilet Day should attention be paid to (the solution of) this social problem. As far as we are concerned, it should always be on the agenda. That is why we zoom in on one of our 12 provinces every month, giving insight into how the municipalities within that province are doing.

We go down the provinces not in alphabetical order, but on the basis of the best municipality of the worst province to be found. Last month it was the turn of the province of Groningen and now it is Flevoland. Below are the upcoming months with the corresponding province.

Province of Groningen - Municipality of Groningen (124) - December
Province of Flevoland - Municipality of Noordoostpolder (90) - January
Province of Gelderland - Municipality of Harderwijk (16) - February
Province of Overijssel - Municipality of Losser (11) - March
Province of Drenthe - Municipality of Assen (10) - April
Province of North Brabant - Municipality of Vught (7) - May
Province of Limburg - Municipality of Roermond (6)- June
Province of South Holland -Municipality of Rotterdam (5) - July
Province of North Holland - Municipality of Alkmaar (4) - August
Province of Friesland - Municipality of Schiermonnikoog (3) - September
Province of Utrecht - Municipality of Utrecht (2) - October
Province of Zeeland - Municipality of Veere (1) - November

The number of inhabitants per toilet  

So the most toilet-friendly municipality of the province of Flevoland is the municipality of Noordoostpolder. With a total of 575 points, they managed to secure 1st place.

In order to paint a vivid and clear picture of the need for more toilets for the municipalities within the province of Flevoland, we have broken down the number of inhabitants per available toilet for each municipality. We want to emphasize that visitors and tourists to the municipality are not included here at
.

Thus, even in the best scoring municipality in this province (municipality of Flevoland), a total of 2,669 residents have to share one public/open toilet, with a total of 18 toilets. In the least scoring municipality (municipality of Urk), there are 5 toilets for residents making 4,294 residents share the toilet. There is plenty of room for improvement! The number of people who have to share a toilet is 1 of the 6 indicators on which the national ranking is based.

Each month, we communicate the population per toilet of all municipalities within the county currently in the spotlight via our newsletter. Would you also like to be the first to receive this data in your mailbox every month? Then sign up for the newsletter!

Theranking of Flevoland province

We have listed the full rankings of the municipalities within Flevoland County below for you and whether they have increased or decreased in the county compared to last year.

For a full view of the table, it is best to view it in landscape or on a desktop.

Place	(+/-)	Municipality	Toilets	Residents on 1 toilet
1	1	Northeast Polder	18	2.669
2	1	Zeewolde	12	1.946
3	0	Lelystad	27	3.008
4	0	Almere	57	3.822
5	0	Dronten	10	4.287
6	0	Urk	5	4.294

Room for improvement

Nationally, with 575 points , the municipality of Noordoostpolder ranks 90th out of a total of 344 municipalities in the Netherlands at that time. Measured against the 1,000 points that can be achieved, there is still plenty of room for improvement.

With a few simple steps, it is possible for every municipality to finish even higher in the national rankings in the coming year. There are more than enough achievable opportunities for all municipalities to become more toilet-friendly and thus not only more inclusive, but also more welcoming.

These include:

1. Make toilets at municipal locations public for passersby.
2. Installation of public (seasonal) restrooms in high-traffic locations.
3. Local businesses are asking if their restrooms can be made public for passersby.
4. Making restrooms clearly findable by becoming a partner of HogeNood and notifying restrooms and keeping track of dates in the HogeNood CMS, placing signs at
   location leading to the restroom, and placing stickers at restroom locations themselves to provide additional designation.  
5. Keeping a sustainable toilet policy so that not only now, but also in the future, having sufficient hygienic toilets within the
   municipality are ensured.

Also become a toilet-friendly municipality? Then get in touch.

The complete ranking of toilet-friendly municipalities of the Netherlands 2022

For those who want to discover where their own municipality ended up, we have the complete ranking of all 344 for World Toilet Day 2022 also as an interesting article. In it you can read how the list came about and how many points each municipality managed to achieve in 2022. There is also the map which provides insight into the proximity of all notified toilets in the HogeNood app.

Monthly updates on each province via the newsletter

From now on, we will publish a monthly article focusing on one of our 12 provinces. Always know that you will be the first to be notified about the toilet friendliest municipality of each province? Then sign up for the newsletter! That way you can ensure yourself
that you get the latest list in your inbox as soon as it is put online!

Note: the dates used in this article is a snapshot of World Toilet Day 2022, changes may have occurred in the interim.