Thanks for the posts on school toilets.
Slightly outside the subject, but linked: Is there a standard for handwashing taps/stations to learners?
Very best,
John

Dear John,

I have moved your question to here to give it more attention.
It's a good question (and I am no expert on this).
I guess it depends on what you want to achieve with the handwashing at school.
When I think of handwashing at schools, I immediately think of the work done with the government in the Philippines sparked by the NGO Fit for School. It is an amazing program that works at scale and at a very low cost.

What they are doing there is group handwashing at set times, most notably before meals. If you want to do group handwashing, then I guess you need enough tap stands for the entire class of children.

I have grouped the documents we have in the SuSanA library about Fit for School here (unfortunately their website is not totally up to date so for now you are better off with the items in the SuSanA library):

www.susana.org/en/resources/library?search=fitfor

(this filters the library for "fitfor" which is a tag that I have given to their six publications that are in the library so far)

Please tell me if you are finding this useful?

If you don't do group handwashing, but individual handwashing, then my guess would be that you provide one handwashing tap for each toilet cubicle? Or would that be overkill? I assume that during break times the toilets get used by a lot of pupils, perhaps there is even a queue. Therefore, each person who leaves a cubicle needs immediate access to a sink otherwise they will leave without washing their hands.

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear Elisabeth,

Thanks very much for your response and the reference about the useful publication by Fit In School!

Looking through some reports and guidelines on WASH in schools, I was unable to locate guidance on the number of handwashing taps to students for toilet facilities. I agree with your logic about one individual tap per toilet cubicle in absence of a group handwashing installation.

Very best,
John

Hi John,

Good question! This is one that the PPPHW has gotten before.

I'm glad that Elisabeth sent you the Fit for Schools materials, as I would do the same.

I would add that [url=http://http://www.unicef.org/wash/schools/files/UNICEF_Field_Guide-3_Star-Guide.pdf]UNICEF's Three-Star Guide[/url] to WASH in Schools indicates that group handwashing stations should accommodate at least 10-15 students at a time.

It seems that this is an area where better guidance is needed, so I'll include it as a topic for discussion in upcoming Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing Think Tanks or events. In the meantime, if you have other questions that you'd like to ask an expert, please feel free to submit a question via this simple webform: docs.google.com/forms/d/1jUT0Lu4lZGIyHDc...LyuejintMsUOSG4/edit

Dear Hanna,

That's an interesting initiative you have mentioned there: "if you have other questions that you'd like to ask an expert, please feel free to submit a question via this simple webform" (even though I would also advise to ask here on the forum of course! ).

Do you have a compilation of previous questions and answers that have been asked in that way? Perhaps a list of FAQs (frequently asked questions) about handwashing?

By the way, how about taking such questions and using them to edit and improve the Wikipedia article about handwashing and using that as a nice concise knowledge management base as well? The current article on handwashing looks like this:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_washing

I think it reads quite well but we could work on it to give it more of a developing countries perspective. In particular, I thought it might be good to insert information on group handwashing activities (Fit for School) and on simple handwashing devices like the Tippy Tap and others.

Would you be interested in working on this together? You might have seen my others posts about making use of Wikipedia to "capture & spread" our knowledge here on the forum:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/166-de...naries-mapping-tools

Regards,
Elisabeth

Thanks, Elizabeth.

We just started this initiative, so we don't yet have a library of Q&As. We will have a page dedicated to these on our website early next year and will also publish a Q&A each month in our e-newsletter.

Great idea about using these to update the Wikipedia article! Happy to work on this.

Hi Hanna,

Thanks for reminding about the Three Star Guide. The reference for 10-15 learners for handwashing station is a good one.

In case the space of the toilet block does not permit a large handwashing station in proximity, we were considering that the minimum number of handwashing taps for toilets should be equal to the number of toilets in the school block. Would appreciate if this rational is cross-checked with the "think tank" events.

Very best,
John

Hi
I am working in WASH for a well-recognized organization and just want to discuss if there should be any separate standards for hand washing station in school. What I have observed that in underdeveloped countries students uses drinking water station as a hand washing station. No doubt that if a school is connected to water supply system for drinking purpose and no additional treatment needed, or no additional cost required to make drinking water safe, than it can be used for the hand washing as well. So should there be a separate standard for a hand-washing station at school considering a child, gender and disable friendly structures? Any examples or cases to share?


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Note by moderator (EvM): Hi Binesh, I have moved your post into an existing thread. If you scroll up and see the previous posts, does that help answer your question? If not, please let us know in this thread.

Hi to all
I am responding to the heading above about the standard of hand washing. I haven't seen the guide of hand washing but there is alot of innovation has been undertaken according to the respective area. For example GIZ produced a guide according to the specific area, the guide is all about group handwashing facilities(progaram is called fit for school). This was introduced at Cambodia and revealed postive impact and what now GIZ doing , they are trying to introduce to other country if it can work , also within the guide there are different drawing which you can adopt according to the existing situation of the area

Hi jbr

I have a question regarding on your post, what will be an appropriate space between one tape to another in order to provide enough space for students when their washing they are hands because i haven't see any specification required for placing of one tape to another.

Wow it my honour to contribute in this topic of having handwashing n taps in schools. If you happen to visit schools located in arid and sub arid area you wil be much surprised to see even clean water for consumption is problem leave alone water for washing hands to promote hygiene. There are several primary schools which even classroom is problem they school under tree without trained teacher. This is very common in most school in arid part of our country kenya.

Dear Binesh, thanks for bringing up this important question. The Fit for School approach promotes separate low-cost group washing facilities that enable children to practice daily hand washing in schools. Please check our webiste and the following publications. Hope that helps. Best regards, Nicole

Website: www.fitforschool.international

Field Guide: www.fitforschool.international/wp-conten...2015_3rd_edition.pdf