Toilet-friendly municipality of Utrecht is Utrecht

September 13, 2022

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.

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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.

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We do not go through the provinces alphabetically, but on the basis of the rankings.

December: Province of Groningen

January: Province of Flevoland

February: Province of Zeeland

March: Province of North Brabant

April: Province of Limburg

May: Province of Drenthe

June: Province of South Holland

July: Province of North Holland

August: Province of Friesland

And this month, it's the province of Utrecht that we're scrutinizing.

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The number of inhabitants per toilet  

The most toilet-friendly municipality in the province of Utrecht is the municipality of Utrecht. With a total of 744 points they manage to secure first place.

In order to paint a clear picture of the need for more toilets for the municipalities within the province of Utrecht, we have made a breakdown of the number of inhabitants per toilet in each
municipality. We want to emphasize that visitors and tourists of the municipality are not included in this
.

For example, even in the best scoring municipality of this province (municipality of Montfoort) a total of 1,806 inhabitants have to share one public/open toilet, where there are 199 toilets in total. In the least scoring municipality (municipality of Montfoort) there is only one toilet for the inhabitants to share so if you compare it to that then it is not so bad. Those who live in the municipality of Montfoort share one toilet with 13,896. That is a huge difference!

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 also 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!

The ranking of province of Friesland

We have listed the full ranking of municipalities within the province of Utrecht for you below. You can read the list as follows:

Position within province and name of municipality / number of inhabitants per toilet / (position on the Dutch ranking list)

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1. Utrecht 1,806 (3)
2. Amersfoort 1,419 (15)
3. Woerden 1,597 (39)
4. Soest 2,132 (60)
5. Baarn 1,653 (75)
6. Eemnes 1,170 (76)
7. Rhenen 1,554 (83)
8. Utrechtse Heuvelrug 2,378 (135)
9. Bunschoten 2,202 (137)
10. Veenendaal 2,788(176)

11. Stichtse Vecht 2,959 (181)
12. Bunnik 1,918 (191)
13. Woudenberg 2,728 (192)
14. De Ronde Venen 2,631 (218)
15. Renswoude 2,778 (219)
16. IJsselstein 4,831 (225)
17. Houten 3,587 (233)
18. Wijk bij Duurstede 3,418 (234)
19. De Bilt 2,892 (248)
20. Zeist 4,065 (252)

21. Nieuwegein 5,322 (262)
22. Leusden 3,394 (268)
23 . Vijfheerenlanden 3,855 (293)
24. Oudewater 5,069 (303)
25. Lopik 3,614 (319)
26 . Montfoort 13,896 (340)

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Room for improvement

Nationally, the municipality of Utrecht with 744 points is in a nice 3rd position of the total of 352 municipalities in the Netherlands. Utrecht has increased again with 8 points compared to last year. 2020 Utrecht had a total of 736 points. With a few simple steps it is possible for every municipality to end up even higher in the national ranking in the coming year. There are more than enough feasible opportunities for all municipalities to become more toilet friendly and thus not only more inclusive, but also more welcoming.

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.

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

For those of you who would like to find out where your own municipality has ended up, we have provided the complete ranking of all 352 for World Toilet Day 2021 as an interesting article. Here you can read how the list came about and how many points each municipality managed to achieve in 2021. 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 a monthly article focusing on one of our 12 provinces. Do you want to be the first to know about the most toilet-friendly municipality of each province? Then subscribe to the newsletter at the bottom of this article. That way you can be sure
that you will receive the newest list in your inbox as soon as it is put online!

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.