Washing of hands made easier

DUNCAN GUY duncan.guy@@inl.co.za

GREEN minds have come up with a simple device that can be made from recycled materials to enable schoolchildren – especially those in poorer communities – to safely wash their hands.

All they do is push a pedal made from a plank, connected by a rope to a plastic bottle filled with water, hanging from a rig made of poles while holding out their hands.

“Many of the schools we work with don’t even have a place for children to wash their hands after they have been to the loo,” said Bridget Ringdahl, project manager of the Water Explorer/global Search for Sustainable Schools project.

One of the schools where she is involved in environmental education is Obed Mlaba Technical High School in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, outside Durban, where a prototype has been set up and is waiting to be used when some pupils return.

Another has been set up at The Birches Pre-primary School in Sarnia, Pinetown, a flagship institution when it comes to saving water and self-sustainability, to the extent it has a “farm stall” selling fresh produce from its car park.