Call for more public toilets in the Netherlands

There should be more public toilets in the Netherlands. That said the Toilet Alliance, a collection of more than 20 organizations committed to more toilets in the Netherlands, in a letter to the parties involved in the Cabinet formation process.

The Toilet Alliance made three requests in their letter. The toilet standard, a toilet every 500 meters in busy pedestrian areas and city and town centers, should be included in the law, and municipalities must comply with it. Municipalities must receive sufficient funding to build self-cleaning, wheelchair-accessible public toilets. And all regional trains must be equipped with a bathroom within three years.

According to the alliance, too many people suffer if there are not enough public toilets. "A third of Netherlands residents state that their quality of life suffers, a fifth sometimes stay at home for fear of not finding a toilet on the road."

According to the alliance, some municipalities, like Utrecht, Rotterdam, and Pijnacker-Nootdorp, are pursuing the toilet standard. "We are pleased about that," said Bernique Tool, founder of the Toilet Alliance and the Stomach Liver Bowel Foundation director. "But two-thirds of the municipalities do not even have a toilet policy. That is why we say: include the standard in the law, keep municipalities to it, but also give them the money to comply with it."