Percentage of Hawker Centres and Coffeeshops Ready to Implement Gender Ratio Requirement in Public Toilets

9 Mr Murali Pillai asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) what is the percentage of hawker centres and coffeeshops which currently do not adhere to the ratio of female and male toilet facilities of 5:3 as required by the NEA; (b) what steps can be taken to encourage the relevant owners and operators to make the requisite changes to comply with the ratio requirement; and (c) whether incentives can be provided under NEA's Toilet Improvement Programme launched on 2 October 2020 to effect the desired changes.

The Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) (for the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment): The Code of Practice on Environmental Health or COPEH, specifies the minimum number of female and male toilet facilities for different categories of premises, according to their Gross Floor Area or capacity. For small food establishments, such as coffeeshops that are no more than 250 sqm in area, the minimum requirement is to provide one toilet and one wash hand basin. For larger hawker centres and coffeeshops, the required ratio of female to male toilet facilities will vary according to size. The 5:3 ratio of female to male toilet facilities applies to premises such as shopping malls, conference halls and cinemas.

NEA regularly updates the requirements in the COPEH, including those pertaining to the number of female and male toilet facilities. These will apply to premises, including hawker centres and coffeeshops, when they undergo rebuilding or major renovation.

NEA will encourage owners and operators of hawker centres and coffeeshops to provide toilet facilities that meet the latest COPEH through the Toilet Improvement Programme or TIP. The TIP provides co-funding support of up to 90%, capped at $45,000, to incorporate better designs and technologies for more productive and effective cleaning of toilets.

I urge Town Councils and coffeeshop owners to apply for the TIP to upgrade their toilets.

Mr Speaker: Mr Murali Pillai.

Mr Murali Pillai (Bukit Batok): Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the hon Senior Minister of State for her comprehensive answer. I have a supplementary question. May I please ask if her Ministry could consider extending the NEA's Toilet Improvement Programme to also include, apart from hawker centres and coffeeshops, standalone wet markets – there is one such wet market in Bukit Batok which is owned by a private owner – which would benefit from the incentives to improve the toilets and also incentivise the owners to conduct deep cleaning and daily cleaning of the toilets?

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: I thank the Member for the supplementary question on wet markets. At the moment for the Toilet Improvement Programme, we have budgeted about $8 million and we are looking at co-funding the programme for up to 40 hawker centres whose common areas and toilets are managed by the Town Councils, and up to 114 coffeeshops. So, this is as a start.

With regard to the request, let us look at it. As I have said, our priority and as a start for this Toilet Improvement Programme, it is really for coffeeshops and hawker centres where there is high traffic and we are looking at improving standards of hygiene and cleanliness, particularly with respect to the spread of infectious diseases and so on. We are looking at toilets that have not been upgraded, for instance, for coffeeshops, for the last three years, with ageing infrastructure and maintenance issues. But these are areas that we could look at.