A PROJECT PROPOSAL

ON

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education in School

OF KAVRE DISTRICT

SUBMITTED TO

Ministry of Education

Nepal

SUBMITTED BY

RURAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY NEPAL

POKHARI CHAURI KAVRE

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education in School
Kavre

Region: Kavrepalnchok district, Nepal

Author: Susan Sapkota President RDSN
Status: Needs Funding
Budget: Rs.40,00,000
Collected: Rs.0
Needs: Rs 40,00,000
Goal: to improve health and educational opportunities for
children and communities in kavrepalanchok, through
implementation of safe water use and sanitary human
waste disposal practices
Comment: This project meets clear needs in this region.
Funds for facility construction, and training in basic
sanitation for teachers and students, will result in long-
term gains in health, mental and physical energy, and
children's ability to take advantage of educational
opportunities.

Background information
Earthquake in the year 2072 clearly showed that water
distribution systems in Nepal are in a crumbling state.
More and more systems are in disrepair, and the water
supply for large portions of the country, especially in rural
areas, is becoming inadequate, causing many people to
use alternative and unsafe water sources such as canals.
The most affected communities live in the pocket of
“rainfed” agricultural lands and totally depend on
precipitation not only for crop production but also for
drinking and other domestic purposes. Most of the rural
population (aboutly 70%) never had access to piped water
supply and relies on open water sources. Many
communities' capacity to maintain and improve water and
sanitation facilities remains poor due to the excessive
reliance on centralized maintenance encouraged by the
former system.
Traditionally, health and hygiene education in schools
focused on covering theory and memorization of facts
from the official school curriculum, rather than on
strengthening hygiene practices. The Government
provided formal, culturally non-specific education that
failed to generate interest, particularly in remote rural
areas. Over the past ten years, this topic in schools has
been largely disregarded. On the other hand, because of
the water shortages and infrastructure problems
mentioned above, many schools are spending time and
energy just to collect water for daily survival.
Many International Organizations and NGOs helped to
the safe water supply and basic sanitation in many schools
remains poor. Large numbers of rural schools and health
centres lack access to sanitary facilities like latrines and
hand washing facilities. Even before the earthquake,
environmental sanitation in rural areas was not a priority.
Less than 5% of the total rural population had access to
proper sewerage systems. Pit latrines are the commonly
used sanitation facility. Poor maintenance of these
facilities, especially at public places as schools and health
centres has resulted in unacceptable hygienic conditions.
Overall the PROBLEMS can be summarized as
follows:
 non-existent or insufficient water supply, sanitation
and hand-washing facilities;
 toilets or latrines that are not adapted to the needs of
children, in particular girls;
 broken, dirty and unsafe water supply, sanitation and
hand-washing facilities;
 children with poor hygiene and hand-washing
practices.
Under these conditions, schools become unsafe places
where diseases are transmitted. One of the major
problems faced by school age children is infection by
parasites and flukes. These and other diseases, often
sanitation related, obviously contribute to absenteeism,
but there is a more hidden aspect: Poor health of children
affects their ability to learn and therefore influences their
perspective in life. Good health at school is essential for
now and an investment for the future.
Working with Children on basic hygiene and
sanitation is very important:
 Most children are eager to learn. Schools can stimulate
and support positive behavioral change in children.
 Children have important roles in household chores
related to hygiene.
 Children may question existing practices in the
household and become agents of change within their
families and communities.
 Children are future parents. What they learn at school is
likely to be passed on their own children.

Project time frame: two years

Target area: 30 schools of kavrepalanchok
Target groups:
 20,000 Primary school children in the target area;
 1500 school directors and teachers;
 Parent and Teachers Associations with the aim of
outreach to the communities;
 Primary health care staff in targeted communities.
Programme strategies:
 The development of life-skills in school children;
 A healthy and safe school environment;
 Outreach to families and communities.
Methods of implementation
Life-Skills Development:
1. Training of the school staff involved, using the, so-
called, ‘cascade model’. Which implies that part of the
staff will be trained, passing the knowledge on to other
colleagues, school children and indirectly the parents.
2. Teachers and staff of the primary health care units in
the target areas will be trained in life-skills education
focusing on, at least, the following themes:
 Personal hygiene
 Drinking water
 Safe extra disposal
 Environmental conservation (including recycling and
drought preparedness).
 In addition several activities, such as ‘Clean-up
days’, puppet plays and video training will be directly
with the school children.
A Healthy School Environment
For each school, a joint assessment on the existing water
and sanitation conditions will be made with the school
director and teachers, as well as, with the school children,
primary health care staff and representatives of the
Parents and Teachers Associations.
On the basis of the budget available, a draft plan for
renovation and a ‘maintenance and operation plan’ will be
developed and agreed upon in writing by all parties
involved.
The programme provides construction materials and
supervision of construction.
The school has to provide all manual labor preferably
through volunteer labor of parents and/or community
members. For the operation and maintenance of the
facilities, mechanisms will be developed for the
purchasing of materials need for minor repairs, soap,
towels, etc.
Once the project has been implemented the school
facilities will at least consist of:
 Adequate amount of easy to maintain latrines (special
units for boys, girl and teachers);
 Latrines that are ‘nice, light and convenient places’
with enough privacy and security for its users;
 Adequate amount of hand wash facilities near the
latrines and inside the schools;
 Facilities for drinking water, such as slow sand filters
and water containers;
 A system for safe garbage disposal.
Outreach to Families and Communities
In all stages of the implementation of the programme,
parents and teachers associations will be involved. To
strengthen the activities in the schools, simultaneously a
public awareness campaign on sanitation and hygiene will
be implemented at the district level.
Monitoring and Evaluation
For the day-to-day implementation of the programme at
school level, ‘implementation and monitoring
committees’ will be established. These committees
consist of the following members:
 School director
 Teachers
 Community Representatives
 Parents
 Primary Health Care Staff
In addition to giving follow-up to the education and
construction activities, the committee will keep a record
on the health statistics/absentees in the school. This will
allow them to monitor the health impact of the
programme, as well as, will quickly show the need for
corrective measures, if considered necessary. Frequency
of meetings: every two months.
Management, implementation and sustainability
The implementation of the programme will be
coordinated by local NGOs under the supervision of
RDSN Kavrepalanchok. The design and construction of
facilities in each school will take a total of 1 year. The
educational activities are an ongoing process
simultaneously to the construction phase. The programme
will support the educational part, for a period of 1 year,
after which it should be self-sustained. Once the
programme has been implemented, the "implementation
and monitoring committees" in each school will be
transformed into "monitoring committees". With technical
support of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of
Health the programme will become self-sustainable after
two years.
Budget
Rehabilitation and construction of facilities
Rs.20,00,000
(Rs.2,00,000/school)
Production of educational materials 10,00,000
Workshops and preparatory meetings for 30
2,00,000
schools
Programme support 5,00,000
Virtual Foundation administrative fee 3,00,000
Total Requested for Project Rs.40,00,000
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