From: Ihsan Ullah
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 6:54 AM
Subject: Re: [Wg7] Getting School WASH Right

Dear Mecca,

This needs to be researched, whether the disease load is heigher without latrine facility or after the facility. Also we need to work closely on disease significance lavel. Sometimes it become very defficult to relate a disease to certain intervention. Please correct me if i am wrong.
What I have in my mind, is that open defecation in the suurounding of the schools are more risky because if in both the cases the children are not washing their hands with soap, then whcih option is good ??
Cheers!

Ihsan Ullah Khan
Manager WASH- Sindh
Care International Pakistan

From: Stephen Mecca
Subject: Re: [Wg7] Getting School WASH Right
Date: Tuesday, 28 February, 2012, 12:10 AM

You are absolutely correct. In our Microflush-Biofil toilets, we have a small sink in each stall for handwashing, the greywater from which is used to do the next flush of the toilet. The flushing uses 150 cc of water. The toilets are being prototyped in Pokuase Village in Ghana under a Grand Challenges Award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
..Steve Mecca
Ghana Sustainable Aid Project
--
Stephen Mecca, Ph.D.
Professor
Department Engineering-Physics-Systems
Providence College
Visiting Scholar
Department of Computer Engineering
Faculty of Engineering Science
University of Ghana

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From: Rieck, Christian GIZ
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2012 3:26 PM
Subject: Getting School WASH Right

Dear working group on community, rural and schools,

I am forwarding you the report of 'Getting School WASH Right' conference held at Emory University in December which might be interesting to you.

There is one of the findings that I find quite astonishing and very relevant to mention. The SWASH+ program in Kenya found from the impact evaluation that schools receiving new latrines had a higher risk for children to contaminate their hand with faecal matter (see attached report). In the absence of proper handwashing this naturally leads to higher disease load of children than of children in schools without sanitation facilities where kids rather defecate at home with higher changes of washing hands at some point. In my own words this means that if toilets are constructed in schools and handwashing with soap is not practiced it may lead to deterioration of health at school. This puts many efforts of WASH in schools into a totally different picture. Matt Freeman from SWASH+ has informed me that the team will publish an article about this issue very soon. Please mind if I have made wrong assumptions.

Please see the SWASH+ website for further information www.swashplus.org .

Additionally let me mention to you the new mapping website of WASH in schools with interesting information of various UNICEF programs worldwide www.washinschoolsmapping.com .

Best regards,
Christian