There are currently 170 such certified toilets here.

Its revamped Happy Toilet programme, a voluntary certification programme on toilet maintenance and cleanliness rolled out in 2003, will have a more flexible audit fee structure.

In the past, a flat fee of $100 was charged per toilet, with a discounted fee of $80 for operators with at least 10 toilets within a building or 1 km radius of one another. Now, the fee is tiered based on the number of cubicles or urinals each toilet has.

This is to get smaller toilet operators on the bandwagon, said the association's president Tan Puay Hoon.

But even with the revised fees, which means a toilet comprising one cubicle and a general washing area costs $71 to audit with a certificate, smaller operators are unlikely to rush for it.

Two coffeeshop associations here, representing about 600 odd coffeeshops together, said that their members were unlikely to get on the programme if it is not mandatory.

Mr Hong Poh Hin, chairman of the the Foochow Coffee Restaurant & Bar Merchant Association, said that coffeeshops would want to keep costs low and they do not see much benefit in having their toilets certified.

Restroom Association president, Ms Tan, acknowledged that coffeeshops are a 'challenging sector' to approach.

'We need to sit down and work it out with coffeeshop associations. We have yet to talk to this sector, sell them the idea and get them to get their members to participate,' she said.

When it comes to shopping malls, she believes that clean toilets would be a value-add, to keep shoppers in the building longer.

Does she think the 2010 target of 24,500 certified toilets is achievable?

'If all three sectors - the toilet owners, the cleaning industry, the users - do their part, it is possible.'