Toilet-friendly municipality of Flevoland is Zeewolde

17 January 2021

Friday 19 November 2021 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.

‍

There is work to be done in the Netherlands, because recent research has shown that one in five people regularly stays at home because of a lack of toilets. We can therefore say that there is a social problem. In order to draw attention to this problem, we annually announce the well-known ranking of "the most toilet-friendly municipality in the Netherlands" on World Toilet Day. But it is not only on World Toilet Day that attention should 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 do not go through the provinces in alphabetical order, but on the basis of rankings. Last month, we took a closer look at the province of Groningen. This month we zoom in on the province of Flevoland.

The ranking of the province of Flevoland

The toilet-friendly municipality of Flevoland province is the municipality of Zeewolde. With a total of 574 points, they managed to secure first place.

The complete ranking of the municipalities within the province of Flevoland is listed below. You can read the list as follows:

Position within province / name of municipality / position on the Dutch ranking list

‍

Zeewolde / position 88
2. / Noordoostpolder / position 148
3. / Lelystad / position 188
4. / Almere / position 196
5. / Dronten / position 296
6. / Urk / position 301

‍

Nationally, the municipality of Zeewolde is 88th out of 352 municipalities in the Netherlands. There is certainly room for improvement here. With a few simple steps, it is possible for every municipality to end up higher on the national ranking.

The number of inhabitants per toilet  

In order to paint a clear picture of the need for more toilets in the Flevoland Province, we have broken down the number of inhabitants per toilet in each
municipality. We would like to emphasise that visitors and tourists to the municipality are not included in this
.

‍

Even in the best scoring municipality of this province (Zeewolde) a total of 1,760 inhabitants have to share one public/open toilet. In the lowest scoring municipality (Urk) there are 4,245 inhabitants who have to share one public/open toilet! 

‍

The number of people who have to share a toilet is one of the 6 indicators on which the national ranking is based. Every month we communicate the number of inhabitants per toilet of all municipalities within the province that is in the spotlight at that moment via our newsletter. Do you want to be the first to receive this data in your mailbox every month? Then subscribe to the newsletter at the end of this article.

‍

Room for improvement

When you consider that it is possible for every municipality to achieve a total of 1,000 points, it is striking that even the number one municipality of
, Flevoland Province, is just over half the total number of points that can be achieved. With a national ranking of 88, there is still plenty of room for improvement. There are more than enough achievable opportunities for the municipalities to become more toilet-friendly and therefore not only more inclusive, but also more hospitable.

For example:
1. Make the toilets of municipal locations available to passers-by.
2. Placing public (seasonal) toilets at busy locations.
3. Asking local businesses if their toilets can be made available to passers-by.
4. Making toilets clearly findable by becoming a partner of HogeNood and registering toilets and keeping track of dates in the HogeNood CMS, placing signs at
that lead to the toilet and placing stickers at toilet locations themselves for extra indication.
5. Maintaining a sustainable toilet policy so that not only now but also in the future, sufficient hygienic toilets are ensured within the
municipality.

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

‍

UN Convention on Disability: responsibility of municipalities

CSN chairman, urologist Prof. Ruud Bosch: "It is estimated that in every municipality 1 in 20 residents stays at home for fear of 'accidents'. These people then become isolated. The aim of the convention is that everyone, regardless of disability or chronic disorder, can participate in society, even if the disability or disorder results in incontinence. Municipalities are co-responsible for the implementation of the UN Convention. Local councils can give a push in the right direction.

‍

The complete ranking of toilet-friendly municipalities of the Netherlands 2021

For those who want to find out in which place their own municipality has landed, we have the complete ranking of all 352 for World Toilet Day 2021 as an interesting article, which also mentions how this list was made. There is also a map showing the proximity of all the toilets registered in the HogeNood app.

Monthly updates on each province via the newsletter

From now on, we will be publishing an article every month focusing on one of our 12 provinces. If you want to be the first to know about the most toilet-friendly town in each province, sign up for the newsletter at the end of this article. That way you can be sure
that you will get the latest list in your inbox as soon as it is published!

Note: The dates used in this article are a snapshot of World Toilet Day 2021, it is possible that changes have occurred in the meantime.

‍