Toilets Repaired at Three Schools

During the months Oct 2023 to Feb 2024 Asha undertook the repair work on the toilets at 3 small primary schools at Allikuzhi, Palayanur and Thomur.

SUGADHARAM 2023-24

ALLUKUZHI, PALAYANUR AND THOMUR

Under Asha’s Sugadharam project we construct or repair toilets in government schools supported by us. The toilet facilities available at the schools are often rather basic. Even these basic facilities are not provided funds to maintain properly. For instance, as the urinal areas are open to the sky, often leaves fall and block the toilets especially during long holidays. The plumbing work needs to be maintained and the septic tank drained periodically. This is often not done. It’s during such situations that Asha steps in. We use our funds to construct or repair toilets depending what is needed at the school. Asha has so far helped build 4 toilets and repair 4 more in 2023.

We took up the repair work at Allukuzhi, Palayanur and Thomur in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu recently. View the photos here.

ALLIKUZHI

Asha has been associated with PUPS Allikuzhi for over 15 years. In 2017, in partnership with Hyundai Glovis, we had constructed the toilets at this school. Over the last 5+ years, the facility fell into disrepair. The presence of the tree next to the toilet was causing the toilet wall/floor to crack. Miscreants had also been damaging the facility for absolutely no reason! There are nearly 85 students in this school who use the toilet facility. Considering the need of the school, we decided to repair the girl’s toilet.

Since the taps and pipelines were broken, we have to work on the plumbing. Owing to broken taps, there was no water facility in these toilets as well. The floor was broken in places and the water tank was badly damaged. We first cleaned up the entire area, including drainages. The plumbing had to be done from the scratch. Since the exposed pipes were being damaged by people, we installed concealed plumbing this time. The flooring was repaired and painted. Since the old Indian closet was broken, a new one was installed. Wash basins and the water tank were cleaned and repaired.

Once the water was made available, we started the painting work. The toilet was painted inside and out. The toilet construction started on 9 October,2023 and was completed on 24 Nov,2023 at a cost of INR 75,000. Our coordinator, Rajaram, also visited the toilet in early December.

PALAYANUR

The toilet repair at PUPS Palayanur began on 10 Nov, 2023. There are about 50 students at this school with almost equal distribution of boys and girls. Since there was only one functional toilet, the children would take turns to use the toilets. Teachers would assign one break for girls to use the toilet and another break for the boys. Since there was a pressing need for toilets, we decided to take up the toilet repair under our Sugadharam project.

The available toilet also was in bad shape. The old closet was broken and a new one was installed in place and the floor was painted. The drainages were cleaned and the damage to it was patched with cement. The toilet did not have proper pipeline. So, we fit new pipes and a tap inside the toilet. There had been a hand wash basin outside, but it was damaged as well. A basin was purchased and set up. A water tank of 200 liters’ water capacity was provided. The septic tank was under the pavement at the entrance of the toilet. The pavement and the septic tank were both damaged and needed repair.

The painting for the walls, door and the toilet floor was done. The repairs for toilet work was completed at a cost of INR 57,000. Our coordinator, Rajaram, also visited the toilet on 19^th Dec.

THOMUR

PUPS Thomur in Thiruvallur has over 42 students, with nearly equal number of boys and girls. There was one toilet used by all the children and the condition of the toilet was deteriorating due to lack of care. We decided to renovate the toilet in January 2024.

Generally toilet work taken up completes within a few days. However, January had been a busy month with excursions, school day preperations and labourers being busy during the month. It took us 2 months to complete the renovation of the current toilet.

Before we started work, the toilet premises were cleaned up. There was no pipeline for water inside the toilets. There was a small cement water tank constructed

outside, where water would be filled in using a long pipe. The children would physically carry mugs/ small buckets of water to clean the toilet after use. We started by setting up the pipeline and taps inside the toilets.

A water tank of 350 ltrs capacity was installed over the open cement tank.

The damaged areas of the urinals were cemented and fixed up. The toilet now has 4 urinals and 2 commodes for the use of the children.

The PVC door of the toilet had been badly damaged, so we got it cleaned and repaired. In addition, we also installed 3 new metal doors; one is being used as the main door and the other two are being used as toilet doors.