Education for Change

Participatory Assessment of Water and Sanitation Facilities in Schools
Ushodayan Thampy and Vanitha Kommu, CEE Andhra Pradesh

In April 2006 the School Sanitation programme of the Dept of Education Govt of Andhra Pradesh commissioned CEE, to conduct a study of the water and sanitation facilities in schools in consultation with UNICEF. The objectives were

To undertake a participatory assessment of water and sanitation facilities in schools involving students, teachers and parents.
To identify and present a set of recommendations for improving the design (hard ware and soft ware) of school water and sanitation facilities based on the participatory assessment.
The study involved interaction with students, teachers and parents to understand their preferences regarding the design of the water and sanitation infrastructure and the practices with respect to its usage and maintenance both at home and schools. A set of innovative participatory methods were used to capture the interest of students and teachers and to elicit their inputs. These are described below.

Guided Tour: The teachers (including the Head Master) and the students were asked to separately take the study team on a tour of the facilities and to point out those aspects (both good and otherwise) which they felt were important to note with respect to the design of the facilities and their use

Flash cards were used to initiate discussions with students

Flash Cards: The students were shown a set of photographs of water and sanitation facilities taken in schools and were asked to point out the positive and negative aspects concerning the facility in each photograph.

Design the Best Toilet: The students were asked to work in groups and design the ‘best toilet’ (draw it) and to list out the important features of their toilet
Photo Documentation: The teachers were asked to take photographs of 5 positive aspects and 5 negative aspects for each of the facilities (urinals, latrines, drinking water, hand wash) using digital still cameras (which gave them immediate visual feedback on the photographs taken).
Score Card: The teachers were asked to discuss as a group and arrive at a set of criteria for evaluating the water and sanitation infrastructure in schools, and to give scores to their own school against those criteria. The study was undertaken between 12 and 22 April 2006, covered 30 schools in three districts of Medak, Anantapur and Visakhapatnam (10 schools in each district).

Infrastructure and Design

The participants made the following recommendations to improve the infrastructure and design aspects.

Dysfunctional water connections must be revived as even a temporary discontinuation in the water facility can lead to disuse of the toilet.
Medak followed by Anantapur report the least number of schools with design problems with the urinals. The facilities in these two districts can be the basis on which design can be further developed.
Even if a school has a functional hand pump or running water from the public water supply, if the water facility is not located at the toilet (inside the toilet block or right outside it), it is considered a problem.
Considering that the usage of the WC by students is very less, especially when teachers use the sole WC available, it may be worthwhile to make one WC a teachers’ toilet and make the other WC a common one for use by students in primary and upper primary schools.
Provide urinal spaces to service needs of all students in the school during a common recess break or of 3 classes at a time in a staggered interval system. A ratio of 1: 100 (WC: student) seems adequate in view of the current usage.
Cement concrete flooring of the WC is preferable to that made of ceramic tiles (as these are slippery). Dadooing with red oxide is also adequate, expensive ceramic tiles may not yield additional benefits.
Roofs must be provided over urinals to prevent accumulation of dry leaves and to provide privacy.
Pre-moulded urinals for girls’ urinals may help to avoid problems with poor construction. However, the moulded urinal must be child-friendly. Shallow, small pans are preferred by students of primary and upper primary classes. Large, deeper pans (that are more like WC pans) may only be suitable for high school classes.
Cross ventilation in WCs with two ventilators — one on the door and one on the back side wall are needed.
In primary schools the toilets need to be clearly visible from the main school building. They need to be no further than 10 meters from the main school building. The path to the toilets needs to be kept clear and should preferably be paved. In high schools the location of the toilets needs to be decided keeping in view the need for privacy. Toilet entrances must not be easily visible from the main school building.
The provision of a tap and basin for hand washing is necessary. Hand washing basin just outside the toilet block will serve the purpose of hand washing after toilet use. This facility must also serve for washing feet. A separate water point is needed for hand washing before and after meals. In primary schools, wash basins at a height of about 2 feet will be useful. In high schools, varying heights will be useful to accommodate the range of student age groups in the school. The space between the tap and the basin also needs to allow for filling of water bottles and needs to be deep enough too prevent splashing of water onto the user.
Hand pumps are to be provided to all schools as they are reliable and provide back-up water supply when the PWS supply becomes dysfunctional.
The design of the hand pump needs to be re-looked at and suitable modifications made in the design to make it safer for children.
A facility to store water is as important as having a water connection. The capacity of the storage tank must be such that it meets the water needs of the school for two to three days to avoid temporary disruptions in water facility due to power failure.
One tap for every 30 students seems to be appropriate. Regular testing of drinking water and more importantly provision of safe water if the tested water is found unsafe is important.

Primary schools toilets need to be clearly visible from the main school building. In high schools, the location of the toilets needs to be decided keeping in view the need for privacy.

Maintenance and Management
From the point of view of use, maintenance and management, of WatSan facilities, the participants suggested:

75% of the students interacted with in the study had no WCs at home. They are first-generation toilet users and need active encouragement to use the facilities.
Orientation to masons and quality control during construction is necessary.
Student involvement in maintenance of toilets for example through systems such as the school committees needs to be encouraged.
The head masters and teachers should have clear directions on what funds could be utilized for the toilet maintenance, what responsibilities students can be given for upkeep of the facilities, etc.
Teachers must be made fully aware of the value of hygiene behaviours and must be equipped with innovative ways to encourage them in students. Thus training to teachers on sanitation and hygiene education with a focus on enhancing the awareness, skills and attitudes of the teachers on sanitation and hygiene education is necessary.
The mandal and district level functionaries of the education department must feel that monitoring of use and maintenance of the school water and sanitation infrastructure is their responsibility.
Wall paintings giving pictorial instructions on toilet use are useful to both students and teachers and must be provided at the toilet, water and hand wash facilities.

For more information contact:
Centre for Environment Education

Andhra Pradesh State Cell
Door No. 10-1-847 to 850, 1st floor,
A.C.Guards, Khairatabad,
Hyderabad 500004
Telefax: 040-23312992
E-mail: ceeandhrapradesh@ceeindia.org