Measurements, final design and the micro-entrepreneur!!!

Yesterday we had the contractor come over to our first pilot project's location - the Corporation School premise in which we are going to place our first batch of community toilets. We will offer the facility on a monthly fee basis to the households of the surrounding slum community.

We marked out where the entrance to the toilet block would be - a seven foot opening to be broken into the wall of the compound, which will then be partitioned into male and female entrances. he male and female blocks will each have 7 portable toilets installed in a C-shape. A wall will be needed to separate the entire toilet set-up from the school. We marked out areas for water tanks, an important necessity, considering that water is available only during certain hours of the day and will need to be stored for use. We also looked at placing our children's toilets. Our design involves small toilet seats partitioned by waist height slabs, allowing access for adult assistance. The inability of children to use the toilets properly is a major reason for dirty toilets.

An abandoned toilet block in the school will be converted into a storage room for the micro-entrepreneur. We have found a family who lives a few minutes away who is wiling to take on this job and we are excited to bring them in this week for a training session including hygiene, cleaning, basic business skills and soft skills which will be important for them to interact with the people of the community.

We can picture the entire toilet block that will be up by the beginning of next week, ready for our first week of free use by the community!!!

This blog is one in a series that documents the journey of Saraplast in setting up an inclusive slum sanitation venture.