PATRONS can expect cleaner toilets in Koufu outlets in the near future, as the foodcourt operator plans to renovate its 26 toilets and get them certified by the Restroom Association (Singapore), or RAS.

One of its toilets, in Vari-Nice Coffee Shop in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10, has already been upgraded and was certified a four-star toilet yesterday.

In the next two months, Koufu will also send 18 of its cleaning contractors on a two-day course, held by the World Toilet College, on how to clean toilets properly.

"Cleaner toilets heighten the dining experience at our outlets, and it will go some way towards helping us in sales," said Koufu general manager Marc Leoi.

For its efforts, Koufu was named one of three private-sector winners of the inaugural LOO Awards, which the RAS set up to recognise organisations and individuals who had put in an effort to provide clean loos, and to encourage more to do so.

The awards were given to 15 winners yesterday, which was World Toilet Day.

To mark the occasion, the World Toilet Organization gathered 50 people to squat for one minute at *Scape Youth Park yesterday.

"The Big Squat" was carried out in seven other countries " Australia, Canada, the United States, Belgium, Kenya, Rwanda and India " to highlight the plight of 2.5 billion people worldwide without proper sanitation facilities.

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