Promoting Healthy School Environments through Sustainable Sanitation Measures

1. Diana Iskreva NGO Earth Forever, Bulgaria National WASH Coordinator, Bulgaria

2. School Sanitation, Concept School sanitation and hygiene refers to the combination of hardware and software components that are necessary to produce a healthy school environment and to develop or support safe hygiene behaviors: • drinking water, hand washing and sanitary facilities in and around the school compound; • activities that promote conditions at school and practices of school staff that help to prevent water and sanitation-related diseases and parasites such as worms (UNICEF and IRC).

5. Health Aspect 1 gram of feces contains • 10 000 000 viruses; • 1 000 000 bacteria; • 1000 parasite cysts; • 100 parasite eggs.

6. Health Aspect, more figures • Diarrhea diseases are responsible for the death of 2 000 000 children each year. • For the last 10 years more children have died from water-borne diseases than the total number of deaths due to military conflicts after the World War 2. • Diarrheal diseases caused by low water quality, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene cause 5.3% of child death and are responsible for 550 000 lost in sickness years for the children in the broad Europe Region (WHO, 2004).

7. Under 5 mortality rate of diarrheal diseases (WHO Europe)

8. Human Rights Aspect Although the importance of water and sanitary facilities for schools is acknowledged, in practice the sanitary situation in many schools in EE and CA is deplorable. Often: • water supply is either non-existent or inadequate for the number of school children; the number of toilet cabins is very small compared to the number of the students and staff in school; • dilapidated pit latrines are often the only choice; • toilets and latrines do not function or are not maintained properly; • latrines are padlocked because children are not trusted to use them properly; • children, specifically girls, do not attend school because appropriate and private sanitation facilities are lacking.

9. UN Convention of the Right of the Child (1989): • legally binding instrument; • guarantees to all children under 18 right to healthy environment. Good sanitation conditions sustain child health and provide opportunity for the child to learn. The design of the school sanitation has to be adapted to the needs of the children (UNICEF).

10. School Sanitation Facilities • Sufficient in number – sinks, drinking fountains, toilet cabins; • Follow minimum specifications for design and quality of construction; • Child and gender friendly, which means that they are adapted to the needs and wishes of all the boys and girls of the different age groups attending school; • Functional; • Sufficient amount of water available for drinking, handwashing, cleansing, cleaning; • Properly operated and maintained; • Water delivery, soap, toilet paper, disinfectants is affordable and paid.

11. School Conventional Sanitation, frequent problems

12. Ecological Sanitation, Principles • Protection of environment and human health; • Conservation of natural and man-made resources (water, electricity, fertilizers etc.); • Improvement of human livelihoods; • Source separation of urine, feces and greywater; • Collection of each product separately; • Sanitisation and treatment of each product; • Recycling of nutrients, humus and water to soil and agricultural systems.

13. UD seat or pan +1,20 Container for feces 0,00 % Container for the urine Urine-Diverting Toilets, Principles

14. Feces Urine UDT, Types

15. UDT – Earth Forever, Bulgaria

16. UDT, Health Aspect

17. UDT and Sustainable Development Ecological Sanitation System (GTZ)

18. Thank you for your attention!