GottaGoCampaign

'Our system is pooped': Diefenbunker appeals for help to deal with plumbing crisis It was built to withstand a nuclear bomb, but the Diefenbunker is experiencing a more mundane problem. To be specific, its toilets are busted

Remember when the Diefenbunker issued an SOS because of the state of its public toilets? We do!

nationalpost.com/news/canada/...

Community toilet plan agreed for Portglenone following public loo closure Mid and East Antrim Council has approved a community toilet scheme in Portglenone, paying local businesses to provide free public access after the closure of Main Street toilets.

In Northern Ireland, local government is paying local businesses to open their toilet facilities to the general public.

www.loveballymena.online/post/communi...

New York considers public toilets 'basic infrastructure', does @en.ottawa.ca?

www.nyc.gov/.../mayor-ma....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-SO...
"In the biggest city in the country, access to public bathrooms is basic infrastructure, not a luxury." -- Speaker Julie Menin

The City of Vancouver's Washroom Strategic Framework is a model for City of Ottawa to follow. Recommendation CW 2026-3 is something we care deeply about. Read it all at council.vancouver.ca/20260120/doc... and share it with your city councillor!

Bessa Whitmore on the aesthetics of public toilets: "There's no reason they need to be ugly".

source:https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/downtown-ottawa-getting-a-new-place-to-go-when-you-gotta-go/

A simple graphic with icons of toilets and calenders. A QR code is in the center that links to linktr.ee/gottagoottawa. The text of the graphic reads "A more accessible Ottawa starts with basic needs. Join the movement. GottaGo! Ottawa"

An image of a streetscape in downtown Ottawa in the summertime. An OC Transpo bus is visible in front of some buildings in the background and a few park benches are on the wide sidewalk in the foreground. The image is overlaid with the text "Gotta Go Ottawa: Public toilets are not a luxury. They are a public health necessity. Join the movement" there is a QR code that points to linktr.ee/gottagoottawa.

📷 Public toilets are essential to healthy, inclusive cities. Ottawa's limited access to public toilets affects seniors, families, people with disabilities and those with health conditions. Follow us to support better public infrastructure for everyone.
#Ottawa #PublicHealth #Accessibility

Downtown Ottawa getting a new place to go when you ‘gotta go’ The City of Ottawa will be building a stand-alone public washroom facility at the corner of Somerset Street and Bank Street.

Great news! Downtown is getting a new public toilet -- not immediately, though: www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...

A picture of two guys behind the counter at a pawn shop. They both have the City of Ottawa logo covering their faces. Text on the image reads: "I hear you guys want washrooms... Best I can do is a locked porta-potty.

Good news: your park has a porta-potty
Bad news: it seems to be locked all the time

Pictures from a cartoon of a man gesturing to an empty pedestal and yelling at the camera. The man says: "This is where Ottawa could put our 24/7 public toilet... IF WE HAD ONE!" [Paris has over 400 freestanding toilets and 100 open 24/7. If Ottawa has a single one, I haven't been able to find it-- even the ones in the Byward and on Parliament Hill close late at night.]

If Ottawa has a 24h public toilet, we haven't spotted it. Did we miss it? Let us know!

A picture of Bernie Sanders speaking to the camera on a snowy winter day. Text at the bottom reads "I am once again asking... for the City of Ottawa to put up signs showing where the public toilets are." [GottaGo has been campaigning for this for 10 years!]

Bernie agrees: Ottawa needs more signs showing where public toilets are!

Pictures showing a scene from Lord of the Rings, with Frodo and Gandalf riding in a horse cart. The logo of the City of Ottawa is superimposed on Gandalf's face. Frodo asks: "Where are the public toilets?" Gandalf replies: "Wouldn't you like to know." Frodo retorts: "Yes I really would actually."

Public toilets in City of Ottawa need publicly-visible signs!

a photo of an imposing mountain of rock with windows cut into it from Göreme national park, Türkiye. In the foreground is a set of stairs leading downward. On the railing are two large signs. One reads "Castle Entrance" and the other one reads "WC" with a blue arrow pointing downward.

One of our intrepid team paid a visit to Göreme national park, Türkiye. Here we see the imposing Uçhisar Castle -- and a prominent sign for a public toilet!

A painting depicting the view of the settlement at Chaudière Falls showing the mill and tavern and the Falls. A red circle helps the viewer spot the public toilet attached to the building on the right.

This image, an 1823 painting by Duvernet depicting the Mill and Tavern of Philemon Wright at the Chaudière Falls can be seen at

central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?ap....

We like it because it's a very early look at a public toilet!

Hobart launches disability access map for city - Inside Local Government City of Hobart Council has launched a new online Access Map for people with disability which it says will make it easier than ever to find accessible facilities, plan trips and navigate the city with ...

The City of Hobart has done some impressive work on making public toilets accessible. Read more at
insidelocalgovernment.com.au/hobart-launc...
and access the map at
accessmap.hobartcity.com.au

Like Fancy Japanese Toilets? You’ll Love the Sound of This.

The Japanese show us the way to make public toilets a unique attraction.

City of Ottawa's answer to public toilets is mostly porta-potties, with music provided only by users.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/r...

Outside of a public toilet in Paris on the sidewalk in the city. On the left of the wall of the toilet is a sign with a neighbourhood map that shows the location of public toilets and metro stations. On the right of the wall of the toilet is a clearly marked soap dispenser and a "Drinkable water" faucet.

Sign on the outside of a public toilet in Paris. Sign reads "Free: Washed, dried and disinfected after each usage". Below this is a green circle with the word "enter" with a pictogram of a waving hand. Below this is a "Wait" section showing that the toilet is red circle "occupied" (with a pictogram of a person sitting on the toilet), dashed red circle "door closing" with a pictogram of a closing door) or light blue circle "cleaning" with a pictogram of water drops and sparkles. Below this is the sensor with a waving hand pictogram beneath it. The sensor is round and presumably has an outer ring that changes color to match the colors in the sign above. The sensor also has a greyed out dashed line. The last part of the sign shows a red dashed line with "out of service" which presumably means that when the sensor shows a red dashed line, the toilet is out of service.

Picture of the door of a Paris public toilet. It's grey and convex; it appears that it opens by sliding from left to right. The sign above the door reads "Toilettes" and on the door is a pictogram of a man, a woman and a wheelchair user. To the right of the door are a set of instructions on how to operate the toilet. The word "free" is clearly visible.

A picture of the inside of a public toilet in Paris. It looks quite clean. On the right is a white porcelain toilet which does not appear to have a seat. On the left is a somewhat scratched up mirror and a hole in the wall with a pictogram of a trash can beneath it. On the left is a platform with slits in it at about waist height that presumably is a sink of some kind. Above the platform is a green hood with "soap", "water" and "air" labeled on it left to right with appropriate pictograms. Presumably it has touchless sensors which dispense soap, water and air (for drying) when you put your hands underneath each pictogram.

Best- in-class public toilets found in the city of Paris. Free, auto-cleaning, and plentiful.

Meet Dr Toilet, the 78-year-old ‘supoohero’ fighting for Hong Kong loos HONG KONG: For Henry Hung Chi-kuen, a veteran of the plumbing and drainage industry with more than 60 years of experience, toilets are not only how he earns his living but also something of an obsessi...

How can we not love a story about "Dr. Toilet", identified as a "supoohero"?
www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/as...

GottaGo! celebrated #WorldToiletDay this year by unhiding @en.ottawa.ca's public toilets. We have some suggestions on how to improve things in the city, too!

Help us spread the word!
youtu.be/fBY51xrmm0s

What ever happened to Ottawa's self-cleaning public toilets? Almost five years since a splashy announcement of public toilet investments, Bruce Deachman is still holding his bladder. | Opinion

GottaGo!'s fearless leader, Bessa Whitmore, was recently quoted in an article that appeared in the
@ottawacitizen.com:

ottawacitizen.com/news/local-n...

The Royal Borough of Greenwich produced a public toilet map and released it on #WorldToiletDay. Nice.

www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/news/2025/ne...

World Toilet Day: JCDecaux completes the roll-out of the World’s largest network of self-cleaning public toilets in Paris JCDecaux SE (Euronext Paris: DEC), the number one outdoor advertising company worldwide, announces the full completion of the roll-out of the new generation of self-cleaning public toilets for the Cit...

417 public toilets deployed in 18 months in Ville de Paris. Happy #WorldToiletDay everyone!

www.jcdecaux.com/news-media/p...

Did I say Madrid? I meant Barcelona 😬

A red and white porta-potty sits in front of a black metal fence. Sign on the front door of the porta-potty reads "Toi Toi". The first "Toi" has a red heart over top of the "I" instead of a dot. Underneath the door latch is a smaller sign that reads "Toi Toi" and a phone number.

One of our intrepid globetrotting supporters shared this with us and described it as
"a handy dandy porta potty outside Olympic stadium in Madrid"

A young woman in a blue 'Gotta Go!' shirt crouches in front of the Bank of Canada museum, grinning and holding the leash of the weiner dog from the first photo. Chalk behind them reads 'Public Toilet,' with arrows showing the toilet is inside and downstairs.

Team GottaGo! (and our weiner-dog mascot) are ready for #WorldToiletDay on Wednesday, November 19th. Keep an eye out for us in @en.ottawa.ca.

From Ben Gurion airport to Tel Aviv bars: meet Israel's viral toilet critic Yoel Darwish, a 27-year-old filmmaker from Tel Aviv, has gone viral for his witty reviews of public restrooms — rating toilets across Israel with humor and precision, turning one of life’s most awkwar...

Filmmaker turned toilet critic Yoel Darwish seems like our kinda guy!

www.ynetnews.com/culture/life...

World Toilet Day Countdown timer showing how much time left until Wednesday, November 19, 2025 12:00:00 AM in timezone Toronto, America (UTC-05:00)

We're counting down the days, hours and minutes until #WorldToiletDay!
www.tickcounter.com/countdown/86...

A photo of a standalone toilet structure along a street in a green space with grass and trees visible in the background. The toilet is a shiny grey box, and above the door the word "Madrid" can be made out. To the left of the door is a sign reading "WC" with 4 pictograms underneath (man, woman, child, wheelchair user).

A photo of a standalone toilet structure along a street in a green space with grass, trees, and the street with shops and cars visible in the background. The toilet is a shiny grey box; the door is on the right side. The side facing the camera has a billboard on it for Stranger Things toys. Above the billboard is a sign reading "WC" with 4 pictograms to the right (man, woman, child, wheelchair user).

Spotted in Madrid, Spain: functional and obvious public toilet infrastructure. And a place to advertise, too!

Pictures showing a scene from Lord of the Rings, with Frodo and Gandalf riding in a horse cart. The logo of the City of Ottawa is superimposed on Gandalf's face. Frodo asks: "Where are the public toilets?" Gandalf replies: "Wouldn't you like to know." Frodo retorts: "Yes I really would actually."

Public toilets in #Ottawa need publicly-visible signs!

Two photos side by side. The first shows a card from the game Uno, edited to read "Stop talking about public washrooms, or draw 25 [cards]." The second photo is of a guy holding an enormous handful of Uno cards.

We here at GottaGo! are pretty single-minded -- we keep talking (and talking) about @en.ottawa.ca being home to a network of safe, clean, accessible and environmentally responsible public toilets.