A reconstruction of the restroom fiasco

Choi Hoon
The author is the chief editor of the JoongAng Ilbo.

Kim Kwan-young — the governor of North Jeolla hosting the 25th World Scout Jamboree at the vast tidal flat in the southwestern coast of Buan — complained that the British delegation hyped the toilet issue as an excuse to bolt out of the Saemangeum campsite. When Prime Minister Han Duck-soo raised the problem while inspecting the site, Kim Hyun-sook — the minister of gender equality and family and co-chair of the organizing committee — said that the issue was minor compared with other complications related to the operation.

The British contingent of 4,400 plus scouts was the first to pull out from the campsite plagued with scorching heat wave, poor sanitation and other problems. UK Scouts chief executive Matt Hyde pointed to the poor restrooms. He told Reuters that toilets weren’t being cleaned, rubbish was building up, and scouts weren’t getting enough food.

The British were not only the first to host the Jamboree, but also was the first to use the flush toilets. The first flushing toilet was invented by Sir John Harington in 1596. His device was designed with a water tank, a lever to let the water out of the tank and a downward valve to empty the toilet. Since the invention came before modern plumbing, the stench lasted a long time. In 1775, Alexander Cumming, a Scottish watchmaker, solved the problem with the invention of an S-shaped pipe below the bowl to let water stay there until the next flushing. The British triumphed in the war against excretion through experiments across 200 years.

A survey on the British in 2010 showed that they considered the flushing lavatory as the ninth greatest invention of all time, ahead of the combustion engine at No. 10. Toilet paper came at 22nd, more prized than trains, pens and shoes, according to Nick Haslam, a psychologist who authored “Psychology in the Bathroom.” The Saemangeum Jamboree with the unkempt and filthy toilet conditions would have appalled the British teens with pride in the history of toiletry.

The bathroom is a sensitive space. It is a private and personal place where we meet our basic needs — and clean our thoughts and body. That explains why it is called “restroom” in English. The Asians have more refined and philosophical name for toilets. In Buddhism, they are a space to relieve people’s worries. Today, restrooms represent the standards — and taste — of the owner of a diner or a hospitality location.

But restrooms can turn into a space of anxiety and phobia when they are related to bowel or bladder issues and diseases. Even family members are fighting over leaving the toilet seat up. The anxiety can elevate when you use a public toilet.

British scouts preparing to leave the camp site in Saemangeum, North Jeolla, after finding problems with restrooms, shower booths and sanitation, on Aug. 5, four days after the opening of the event staged on the reclaimed tidal flat. [YONHAP]

Humans on average use the lavatory for six minutes, four or seven times a day. Assuming a use of six times, the 42,000 scouters plus 8,000 volunteers at Saemangeum would have needed to visit restrooms more than 300,000 times a day. But there were just 354 installed at the makeshift campground. One toilet had to flush nearly 1,000 times a day. And there were just 70 people taking care of the toilets. Each of the day and night shift had to handle 10 toilets a day. The 24th Jamboree held in West Virginia in 2019 had 2,700 toilets, nearly eight times more. They were managed by skilled supervisors.

Prime Minister Han went to the campsite and checked the toilet conditions himself. The scene of the 72-year-old head of the Cabinet cleaning the toilet bowl only worsened publicity. The bureaucratic community came under fire for complacency and negligence to bring even the prime minister to the toilets. The sudden order on civil servants in North Jeolla to join cleaning toilets drew a strong protest from the government employee union. “Are we public slaves?” they complained. The organizers hurriedly recruited part-time cleaners offering 200,000 won ($149) a day for those with experience. The move drew sneers from the public.

We are living in a society where anything that is “public” has lost confidence. “Bureaucratic” has become synonymous with inefficient and rigid ways. Public toilet, public education, and public school classrooms have descended to shabby and outdated standards, not to mention public broadcasting which is no longer watched. The public sector has become more and more distant from the private sector which has been galloping away through fierce competition and innovation. Yet the public sector is in the cocoon of vested powers and regulatory authorities. The bureaucratic community must learn from the Jamboree toilet crisis. The government cannot be trusted if it cannot even handle a youth camp. There is no future without deep soul searching. I wonder if the North Jeolla governor and the gender minister still think that the toilet problem was a minor issue.