World Toilet Day on 19 November 2023: from concealed fittings to urinals – drinking water hygiene affects all tapping points

4-minute read

Now in its 22nd year, World Toilet Day is observed on 19 November 2023. This year’s motto for the event is ‘Making the invisible visible’. While we might find the concept amusing, the background is deadly serious: UN figures show that 3.6 billion people worldwide have no access to hygienic sanitary facilities. Even here in Germany, World Toilet Day may encourage us to rethink our practices and focus in greater detail on drinking water hygiene, for example. While it might not be obvious at first, these two topics share a lot of common ground.

All tapping points count when maintaining drinking water hygiene

To maintain drinking water quality, a complete exchange of water must take place at all tapping points in a building at least every 72 hours. If this is not achieved by the specified normal operation, then this normal operation can be simulated. This means that toilets and urinals also need to be used regularly or flushed accordingly, so as to avoid dangerous bacteria like Legionella spreading excessively in the drinking water system and potentially contaminating the entire installation. While these stagnation flushes can be completed manually, this is both expensive and time-consuming as well as error-prone. Automation offers a more practical and cost-effective approach, like the scheduled flushes that can be set up with SCHELL’s MONTUS Flow WC cistern module. This module offers the option of automatic stagnation flushes and can be integrated with the SCHELL SWS Water Management System or controlled using SCHELL’s Single Control SSC.

MONTUS Flow and MONTUS Flow H

With the MONTUS Flow WC cistern module combined with SWS, even highly complex WC facilities can be managed easily from a single, central hub. Flush intervals and many other features can be configured precisely to local conditions and circumstances. MONTUS Flow was designed to ensure that stagnation flushes are routed directly into the drain pipe, which maintains the cistern fill height at the normal level. As a standalone solution for small-scale or rarely used WC facilities, MONTUS Flow is also perfect for controlling with the Flow SSC Bluetooth® module. MONTUS Flow H meets the needs of accessible sanitary facilities, offering all of MONTUS Flow’s features to help maintain drinking water quality, while making it easier to combine with SCHELL’s high-load mounting modules due to its narrow frame construction. This offers an easy way to ensure the standards-compliant installation of folding support handles and other fixtures in accessible sanitary facilities.

Schell concealed flush systems and urinal controls

SCHELL’s portfolio of solutions is large enough to cover a wide variety of requirements. Common to all of them is their exceptional SCHELL quality. For user hygiene applications, for example, the contactless EDITION E WC control is an excellent choice, combined with the COMPACT II WC concealed flush valve. Thanks to its infrared sensor, this can be triggered without needing to be touched, which minimises the risk of contact infections. Nor is meeting design requirements for a major facility fit-out a problem, since EDITION E is also available for urinals. Whatever solution you ultimately choose, World Toilet Day is the ideal opportunity not only to think about sanitary facilities but also to reflect on the issues of user and drinking water hygiene, with the aim of offering all-round protection for your patrons.

Summary

With its motto of ‘Making the invisible visible’, the 22nd World Toilet Day draws attention to the global challenge posed by access to hygienic sanitary facilities. Even here in Germany, drinking water hygiene and sanitary hygiene are immensely important topics. Maintaining drinking water quality requires the regular flushing of all tapping points – which includes WCs and urinals. Products and solutions from SCHELL, such as the SWS-compatible MONTUS Flow and MONTUS Flow H WC cistern modules, help building operators to handle this important task. Products like the contactless WC controls offered in the EDITION E series also show how user hygiene and design can also go hand in hand in sanitary facilities on (semi-)public premises.