Plan to make Bishops Stortford a Toilet Twinned Town is in the pipeline

The mayor and his deputy are backing plans for Bishops Stortford to become the first Toilet Twinned Town in Hertfordshire.

Cllrs George Cutting and Holly Drake have encouraged resident Chris Webb’s charity initiative which aims to provide sanitation in the developing world.

Chris, a sustainability manager for a construction company, was inspired to get involved when he spotted a certificate in a café in London. He was intrigued enough by Tearfund’s project to investigate further – and twin his own toilet at home in Bartholomew Road. “I just thought it was a smart idea,” he said.

For £60, donors twin their own loo with an impoverished family’s household latrine in a country of their choosing.

Mr Webb hoped Stortford residents would sponsor sanitation in Zimbabwe. The African country, formerly Rhodesia, was founded by the town’s most famous son, empire builder, politician and diamond tycoon Cecil Rhodes.

In return for the money, participants get a certificate complete with a photograph and GPS co-ordinates of the twin so they can locate it on Google Maps.

Mr Webb said: “The average water and sanitation programme per household is £60. Donations go to education and awareness programmes to enable communities to have the education to build their own toilets. Less often, donations provide engineers or engineering solutions to get toilets built.”

He said that many communities did not understand why diarrhoea was so common and why their children have fallen ill or died, and Tearfund’s education programme addressed the root causes of poor sanitation.

Mr Webb, who is anxious to stress he is not affiliated with the charity in any way, wants Stortford to sponsor at least 20 toilets to earn the Toilet Twinned Town title.

He followed Tearfund advice to win councillor backing, meeting the new mayor and deputy back in March as they represent his ward.

Since then he has presented his proposals to Bishop’s Stortford Civic Federation and won support from the Rotary Satellite Club of Bishop’s Stortford.

The next step is to encourage local businesses to sponsor twinned toilets for the public conveniences in the town and washrooms in key locations like community centres, and he will pitch to the chamber of commerce later this summer as part of a rolling programme of engagement.

Elsewhere in the country, businesses like Nando’s and McDonald’s have sponsored conveniences and Mr Webb is keen for Stortford’s cafes and restaurants to follow their example.

At the same time, individuals will be encouraged to play their part so that the total of at least 20 is achieved by November 19 – United Nations World Toilet Day. There is the opportunity for schools and community groups to join the programme too.

Across the world, 2.3 billion people do not have access to safe or sanitary toilets and Cllr Cutting hopes to lead the way in Stortford by twinning his own toilet.

He said that he was supporting the initiative “in the hope the families of Bishop’s Stortford get behind it and we eventually become a twinned town”.

Skelmersdale in Lancashire was the first Toilet Twinned Town in 2015.