Sanitation in schools

Most schools in rural areas in Moldova don’t have facilities satisfying basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) standards. Schools usually have only cesspit toilets located away from the school building, which frequently are in bad conditions, without cabins or separators for privacy, without electricity or heating in winter, with no hand washing facilities, poorly maintained and rarely cleaned. Jointly with Moldovan authorities, ApaSan promotes options and approaches for improving sanitation in schools. A major achievement of ApaSan is the successful introduction of urine diverting dry toilets (UDDT), also called “ecosan toilets”, as a valid and widely accepted alternative option to school sanitation in Moldova.

ApaSan works on following levels:

Supporting schools to improve sanitation

ApaSan has provided financial and technical support to 68 schools for the construction of ecosan toilets (or flush toilets with wastewater treatment in a few cases) and training of teachers, pupils and caretakers in use and maintenance of the toilets as well as on hygiene practices. The toilets are usually attached to the main schools building, so students and teachers can use them without having to go outside in the cold. The toilets are built to modern standards, with tiles, heating, lighting, ventilation and hand washing facilities, and have separate areas for girls and boys, each with several closed cabins for privacy. Monitoring shows good acceptance and sustainable use and maintenance of the toilets. ApaSan has also built capacities of design and construction companies and worked with health authorities to solve legal issues for the acceptance of ecosan toilets for school sanitation.

List of water supply and sanitation projects implemented with ApaSan support

Project examples

Congaz

Comrat Raion (Administrative Unit Găgăuzia)

Chirsova

Comrat Raion (Administrative Unit Găgăuziazia)

Slobozia Raşcov

Camenca Raion (Transnistria)

Olişcani

Şoldăneşti Raion (Central Moldova)

Promoting school sanitation and making available guidance materials

Jointly with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research and the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, ApaSan promotes better sanitation in education facilities. As part of the joint efforts, a guide on options for school sanitation has been published and disseminated. Another guide provides detailed advice on how to implement projects for ecosan school toilets. ApaSan has also worked on improving the regulatory framework for ecosan school toilets, by developing a guideline on use of products from ecosan toilets and by contributing to the establishment of a Code of Practice for ecosan toilets, published by the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction.

Guide: Options for the improvement of sanitation in rural schools in Moldovapdf-en, pdf-ro, pdf-ru
Guide for the implementation of ecosan school toilets in Moldovapdf-eng, pdf-ro

Annexes
Code of Practice in Construction of Urine Diverting Dry Toiletspdf-eng, pdf-ro
Project example Congaz (Construction plans, bill of quantities, permits, photos)zip-ro
Project example Slobozia- Rascov, Transnistria (Construction plans)zip-ru
Project example Chirsova (Construction plans, bill of quantities, permits)zip-ro
Project example Oliscani (Construction plans)zip-ro
Guideline for Use of Products from Institutional Ecosan Toilets for Crop Cultivation in Moldova pdf-eng, pdf-ro, pdf-ru
List of suppliers and service providers for implementing ecosan toiletsavailable soon
Other publications

WASH in Schools – Case Moldova (Skat, ApaSan).
In: GIZ (2015). Making WASH in Schools More Sustainable (Volume II)

pdf-eng