South Holland's Toilet-Friendliest Municipality in 2023‍

On Sunday, November 19, 2023, 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 research has shown that one in four 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 famous ranking of "the most toilet-friendly municipality of the Netherlands" is announced. Not only on World Toilet Day should attention be paid to (the solution of) this social problem. As far as we are concerned, this 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're not going down the provinces in alphabetical order, but by the best municipality of the worst province to be found. Last month it was the turn of the province of Flevoland and now it is South Holland. Below are the upcoming months with the corresponding province with best scoring municipality.

Province of Groningen - Municipality of Groningen (127) - December
Province of Flevoland - Municipality of Zeewolde (100) - January
Province of Overijssel - Municipality of Zwolle (32) - February
Province of South Holland - Municipality of Gorinchem (18) - March
Province of Limburg - Municipality of Roermond (17) - April
Province of Drenthe - Municipality of Assen (14) - May
Province of Friesland - Municipality of Schiermonnikoog (13)- June
Province of Noord-Brabant -Municipality of Roosendaal (9) - July
Province of Noord-Holland - Municipality of Alkmaar (5) - August
Province of Zeeland - Municipality of Veere (3) - September
Province of Utrecht - Municipality of Amersfoort (2) - October
Province of Gelderland - Municipality of West Maas en Waal (1) - November

South Holland municipalities and number of inhabitants per toilet

The most toilet-friendly municipality of the province of South Holland is the municipality of Gorinchem. With a total of 678 points, they managed to secure 1st place.

In order to paint a telling and clear picture of the need for more toilets, we have provided insight into the number of inhabitants per available toilet. In the best scoring municipality in this province (municipality of Gorinchem), 1,672 residents have to share one public/open toilet.

The number of people who have to share a toilet is 1 of the 6 indicators on which the national ranking is based. We want to emphasize that visitors and tourists of the municipality are not included in this calculation.

Every month we communicate the number of inhabitants per toilet of all municipalities within the province that are in the spotlight at that moment through 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!
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‍Theranking of South Holland province

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

For a full view of the table, it is best to turn your mobile in landscape or look at it on a desktop.

Location & municipality	(+/-)	Toilets	Residents on 1 toilet
1. Gorinchem	1	23	1.672
2. Leiden	2	76	1.672
3. Dordrecht	2	59	2.058
4. Goeree-Overflakkee	2	40	1.290
5. Rotterdam	-4	366	1.814
6. Nieuwkoop	10	22	1.339
7. Delft	17	65	1.667
8. Zwijndrecht	2	27	1.667
9. Noordwijk	-6	23	1.964
10. Hardinxveld-Giessendam	-3	11	1.698
11. Southplas	-2	21	2.237
12. Rijswijk	-4	41	1.415
13. Pijnacker-Nootdorp	8	27	2.136
14. Alphen aan den Rijn	-3	66	1.730
15. 's-Hertogenbosch	-1	59	2.691
16. Westland	-4	61	1.883
17. Leiderdorp	3	14	1.976
18. Maassluis	5	14	2.522
19. Gouda	6	31	2.430
20. Bodegraven-Reeuwijk	-5	17	2.136
21. Leidschendam-Voorburg	-2	32	2.430
22. Zoeterwoude	8	5	1.889
23. Voorschoten	-1	12	2.139
24. Ridderkerk	9	19	2.499
25. Lisse	1	19	2.499
26. Alblasserdam	5	6	3.393
27. Barendrecht	8	21	2.324
28. Sliedrecht	0	9	2.909
29. Waddinxveen	0	8	4.432
30. Zoetermeer	-3	48	2.646
31. Wassenaar	5	9	3.010
32. Schiedam	5	25	3.225
33. Middle Delfland	5	7	2.782
34. Ugstgeest	6	9	2.861
35. Katwijk	-6	20	3.330
36. Lansingerland	-23	22	2.943
37. Albrandwaard	4	10	2.636
38. Vlaardingen	9	17	4.416
39. Voorne aan Zee	new	30	2.465
40. Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht	3	9	3.576
41. Papendrecht	1	10	3.228
42. Hillegom	-3	7	3.208

43. Capelle aan den Ijssel3183.753 44. Molenlanden4114.105 45. Teylingen6123.209 46. Nissewaard3204.342 47. Hoeksche Waard-3283.206 48. Krimpen aan den Ijssel17651.667 49. Krimpenerwaard-4115.245 50. Kaag en Braassem264.762

Room for improvement

Nationally, the municipality of Gorinchem with 678 points is in 18th position of the total 342 municipalities in the Netherlands at that time. If you compare this with 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.
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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 2023 ‍

For those who want to find out which place their own municipality landed in, we have the complete ranking of all 342 for World Toilet Day 2023 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 2023.

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 informed about the most toilet-friendly municipality of each province? Then sign up for the newsletter! That way you can assure yourself
that you will 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 2023, changes may have occurred in the interim.