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Ivanovka School #2 in Kyrgyzstan Celebrated the Opening of Their New Eco-San Toilet Facilities

Nearly fifty people attended the dedication ceremony of the facilities made possible with the generous funding and tireless efforts of Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), ALGA, CEF UNISON and the Governments of the Netherlands and Germany.

25.03.2010 |WECF & UNISON

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On Wednesday, March 17, Ivanovka School #2 celebrated the opening of their new Eco-San toilet facilities.  Nearly fifty people attended the dedication ceremony of the facilities made possible with the generous funding and tireless efforts of Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), ALGA, CEF UNISON and the Governments of the Netherlands and Germany. 

The ceremony was presided over by Fedde Jorritsma, the project facilitator Central Asia from WECF, who presented the audience with an informative slideshow on the background of Eco-San facilities and the benefits the students and faculty will now enjoy. Local government administrators, teachers, students and community members were also treated to the talents of a choir of students and a komuz player who were rewarded with enthusiastic appreciative applause from the audience.

The Eco-San toilets occupy a newly constructed addition to the school. This large room is open and well lighted and brightly painted. Visitors shown around the new addition and were delighted at the spaciousness and cleanliness of the new facilities. Banners on the walls display for students and visitors information on the construction stages of the project as well as information on the health and hygiene benefits of the new facilities.



Upon entering this new wing to the school, the first thing to see is a tiled wall running halfway through the middle of the room.  This wall is the dividing line between the girls’ and the boy’s toilets.  On each side of the wall are three hand sinks with soap dispensers and an electric hand drying fan.  To the left of the wall, up two steps and behind two doors, are the girls’ two new Eco-San toilets. In each toilet stall is a waste basket for toilet paper and another small bucket of ash and sawdust.  A small scoop of as is put down the toilet after each use. This is identical on the boys’ side but in addition there are three urinals.  In each of the toilet rooms there are instructions on how to use the new toilets as well as information about taking proper care of the toilets by not putting prohibited materials, such as trash or other objects, into them. 

Visitors were able to ask questions and see for themselves the mechanical workings of the toilets. They were given to understand how the Eco-San system promotes proper hygiene, reduces the spread of disease, reduces the threat of soil and ground water contamination, and how properly treated waste can be safely used for irrigation and fertilizer. Visitors were also delighted to discover that the Eco-San system is odor free.

Ivanovka School #2’s new Eco-San toilets are a welcome new alternative to an old problem. They address what was the primary health and comfort concern at the school. The school’s more than 600 students and faculty members are now informed and trained in the use and care of the toilets as well as in proper hand washing. And as such, the new Eco-San facilities are a proven success and will serve generations of students in Ivanovka for many hygienic years to come.

Please, visit Water and Sanitation for further information on WECF's activities in this field.

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