Government school team designs low cost urinal

A student team from a Government school in Kurumbapatti of Manapparai block in Tiruchi district has won a national design award with a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 for its environment-friendly and low cost urinal that uses 20-litre plastic ‘bubble-top’ water cans in an innovative manner.

Class 8 students – G.Subic Pandian, S.Santhosh, P.Dayanidhi, S.Rahul and R.Prabhakaran – led by their teacher D.Kesavan of Kurumbapatti Panchayat Union School were members of the only government school team which represented the State from among 39 competing educational institutions in Tamil Nadu in the ‘DFC I Can School Challenge 2016,’ competition held in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

The contest, held as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission, attracted over 100 entries from 27 states. The school’s entry titled ‘Safe Mode Pissing System (SMPS)’ was one among four most innovative ideas named in the competition. “We were already considering reusing of ‘bubble-top’ water cans as flower pots and dustbins in our school campus, when children came up with this idea for a hygienic urinal,” Mr.Kesavan told The Hindu .

The most compelling reason for its creation was to stop male students from soiling their clothes after they used the school’s existing toilet facilities, which lacked a proper drainage system. The foul odour emanating from urine-soaked uniforms filled the air in the classrooms as well. After some online research, the team carved a urinal-shaped receptacle out of discarded water cans after placing them upside down, thus making the neck of the bottle an outlet point for fluid.

A channel was created on the floor of the previous toilet, where urine had been stagnating earlier, and fixed a pipe, that was connected to the plastic urinals. The waste water was piped out into a nearby garden patch.

Sprinkler pipes have also been attached to a tap at a higher level, for easy cleaning of the urinals. “We spent around Rs. 600 on our research, and we are very happy to see that our idea has made such an impact,” said Mr.Kesavan. “Most importantly, we have got rid of the bad odour from our classrooms.” Currently the school has four plastic urinals in use.

The victorious team was felicitated on Monday by Collector K.S.Palanisamy. “The prize money will be used to improve the current water management system in our school,” said D. Joselin Mary, Headmistress of Kurumbapatti Panchayat Union School. “We have been promised a borewell by the Rotary Club. We hope to construct a sump to store the water and use it for our campus,” she added.

The school has 98 students both boys and girls, and most of them commonly walk long distances to come to school everyday. “We also want to look into improving the sanitation facilities for our girl students,” the headmistress added.