* Editor's note: We received feedback from a reader that "Sanitation For All" was not Singapore's first ever resolution tabled at the UN. We have updated the article accordingly to reflect this.

Singapore became a member of the United Nations (UN) on Sept. 21, 1965, slightly over a month after gaining independence.

Aside from being internationally recognised on the world stage as a sovereign state, being a UN member also allows Singapore to champion issues close to its heart.

Singapore's UN resolution on toilets

One of Singapore's quirkier resolutions was tabled 48 years after it first joined the UN.

You might think that the resolution would probably have something to do with water, since we seem to have learnt to manage it really well, but no -- well, okay it is, sort of.

In 2013, Singapore tabled the resolution at the UN General Assembly known as "Sanitation For All". It called for greater attention paid to global sanitation via a designated day -- World Toilet Day which falls on every Nov. 19.

It was supported by 120 out of 193 members, and so the resolution was adopted.

Champion of clean toilets

Why sanitation of all things though? Perhaps it is because of Singapore's experience with dredging up the Singapore River and transforming it into what we see today.

Or perhaps it's also because we manage our sanitation really well and drink water from recycled sewage.

But actually, it is due to the efforts of Jack Sim, a man so passionate about the state of public toilets that he founded the Restroom Association Singapore (RAS) in 1998 to raise the standard of local public toilets, and the World Toilet Organisation (WTO) in 2001 to share better toilet sanitation practices globally.

It was Sim who came up with the idea which became the UN resolution.

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Happy Toilets

So how do we make clean toilets here in Singapore? Through the Happy Toilet Programme, of course.

Launched in 2003, the programme aims to reward toilets who have "gone beyond the minimum acceptable standards to delight their customers".

Good toilets which meet the minimum standards get three stars, while exceptional ones get up to five. 

Now you know.

Top image adapted from NATO. 

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