FACT SHEET Project name: Demonstration of integration water, sanitation and hygiene facility in a school

The project installed urine-diverting dry toilets, waterless urinals, and a sanitary napkin incinerator at Prakash Elementary School to address inadequate sanitation and menstrual hygiene management. While the facilities improved school attendance for girls and increased student awareness of water saving, the project faced challenges regarding the maintenance of facilities and the acceptance of treated excreta for agricultural reuse.

• The project addressed critical gaps in menstrual hygiene management (MHM) for girls in Bihar, where a survey indicated that approximately 87% of women and girls lacked private facilities and had to use public pumps for washing. To resolve this, the project installed an incinerator for sanitary napkins, allowing for private and hygienic disposal, which reduced obstacles to girls' school attendance.
• The pilot implemented specific ecological sanitation (ecosan) infrastructure, including four two-chambered urine-diverting dry toilets (two for boys and two for girls), 11 waterless urinals, and a rainwater harvesting system that channels roof water to a storage tank for the school's kitchen garden.
• Implementation faced two primary challenges: the maintenance of facilities and the acceptance of reusing treated human excreta. Maintenance issues were attributed to the fact that school staff used separate waterborne toilets and traditional caste-based associations with sanitation work; the school subsequently hired a cleaner to address this. Regarding ecosan, while urine is currently infiltrated into the kitchen garden, the school has not yet fully adopted the reuse of treated faecal matter.
• The project increased student understanding of environmental protection and water conservation. Post-installation interviews showed that female students had a stronger grasp of the value of 'humanure' in agriculture and the risks associated with open defecation compared to male students and staff.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2014). FACT SHEET Project name: Demonstration of integration water, sanitation and hygiene facility in a school. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/sei-fs-2014-biharecosan-prakashschool.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. FACT SHEET Project name: Demonstration of integration water, sanitation and hygiene facility in a school. 2014. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/sei-fs-2014-biharecosan-prakashschool.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=FACT SHEET Project name: Demonstration of integration water, sanitation and hygiene facility in a school |date=2014 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/sei-fs-2014-biharecosan-prakashschool.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2014fact, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{FACT SHEET Project name: Demonstration of integration water, sanitation and hygiene facility in a school}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2014}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/sei-fs-2014-biharecosan-prakashschool.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }