Singapore’s Toilet-Rating App Flushes Out Filthy Facilities

Users can upload photos to name and shame substandard commodes or even single out favorite restrooms for special merit.

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Bertrand Demee / Getty Images

Avoid such horrors with Singapore's new LOO Connect App.

If cleanliness is truly next to godliness then Singaporeans must be the holiest people on the planet. Tech-obsessed residents now have a mobile app that tracks the condition of the city-state’s public toilets.

The Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS) launched the smartphone tool last week, and it is already proving popular with hygiene-conscious sorts who recoil at the prospect of stepping into a lavatory of dubious repute.

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“This app provides toilet users with the convenience of locating a clean toilet nearby and also providing feedback on a dirty toilet they have just visited,” Emerson Hee, the scheme’s executive director, said in a statement, according to Reuters.

The LOO (Let’s Observe Ourselves) Connect app was developed by the Singapore Land Authority and Nanyang Polytechnic and was initially launched for Android-based devices with an Apple version due by July.

The free software has already has been downloaded more than 500 times via Google Play and relies on users to rank Singapore’s 40,000 public toilets. “At least this app lets me know which toilet to avoid, no need walk into the toilet just to find that it is dirty!” wrote one satisfied reviewer.

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Users can upload photos to name and shame substandard commodes or even single out favorite restrooms for special merit. Only those facilities that receive four stars or more will be deemed user-friendly.

RAS has been campaigning for better toilets in Singapore since 1998. Apart from the LOO Connect App, the non-profit group also asks for donations for restroom cleaning attendants, runs a competition for clean toilet heroes and produces posters on topics such as “how to have fun in the toilet.”

Singapore is well deserving of its squeaky-clean reputation and boasts stiff penalties for littering such as an $800 fine plus community service. Since 2004, it has also banned the consumption of chewing gum without a medical certificate.

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