Three out of every 10 Singaporeans do not wash their hands after using the toilet.
This, according to a survey commissioned by hygiene products maker Unilever.
The bad habit puts those Singaporeans at risk of catching diseases like pneumonia and dysentery, as the hands are the main carriers of invisible germs.
To encourage better hygiene, advocates will be going round to 50 schools across Singapore on this first-ever Global Handwashing Day.
Lifebuoy, a soap brand under the Unilever group, will be giving out handwash samples to some 50 thousand schoolchildren here.
The effort's part of a global tie-up to mobilise people in over 20 countries -- especially in developing nations -- to wash their hands with soap before eating and after using the toilet.
If more kids did so, the number of child deaths caused by diarrhoea every year would be halved to a million.
Promoters of the pro-handwashing initiative include the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Bank and Singapore-based World Toilet Organisation.