Hsa Mu Htaw School Project

Building girls' bathroom to improve living standard condition

First Day Implemtation

In Hsa Mu Htaw School, female students and teachers who live in the dormitory are facing insufficient bathrooms and water supply. Currently, there is only 1 female bathroom, and it is used for toilet and shower. As a result, the small open-air washing place used to clean feet now serves as a second bathroom.  This washing area has no water tank to store water and the water pressure is very low. This creates many security and privacy problems as well as schooling problems for those who live in the dorm. For these problems to be solved, we propose to install a water tank and build a brick wall so the feet-washing area can be turned into a proper shower place for female students and teachers.

There are currently 27 female students and 3 teachers living in the dorm and all 30 of them have to share 1 bathroom. Students of average age are 8 to 17 years old. The adult students usually take a bath 2 times per day and the rest of the younger children only bathe one time per day. The bathroom and toilet are combined, so if someone is using the toilet, other people who want to take a shower have to wait one by one. Usually, students take a shower before and after schooling hours which is between 9:00am – 5:00pm and long queue to shower becomes very boring. Sometimes the last student to take a shower is at 8:30pm.  

Therefore, the open-aired place used to clean feet in front of the girl’s dorm has become a makeshift shower place and it has reduced waiting time to a little. At present, this showering place is very narrow and its wide 4×4 feet. There are no walls for privacy and it is located near the school’s entrance (refer to figure:1). As a result neighbors can clearly see students showering from their house porch. Apart from that, male students and teachers who need to walk through the area for work, cannot pass through when there is someone taking a shower to respect their privacy.

According to a teacher, he saw a man from Pa.oh organization located next to school peep and took photographs of the girls showering (refer to figure:2).  According to a female grade ten student, she feels very shy when she takes a shower and runs up to the dorm when she sees someone coming towards the shower area. Due to the small size of this showering area sometimes students argue with each other about who should shower first because the place is very narrow and just can accommodate two people at one time.

          Another problem is insufficient water for showering. Usually water comes from 5:00am to 10:00pm but water pressure is very low during shower time even during rainy season. Furthermore, there is no water tank to store the water when they need to use. As a result, it takes a long time to shower and causes some students to be late for dinner. By the time they arrive for dinner, the food would run out. Sometimes, water does not come for 5 days so they have to stay without showering 3 or 4 days and often they have to travel for about 30 minutes to their teacher’s house for showering.

          To solve this girl’s bathroom problem, we propose to build a brick wall around the makeshift bathroom and expand the showering area to about two feet from the girl’s dorm. This will allow at least four children to shower at the same time and further reduce the time to take a shower.

         We also propose to install a water tank with a capacity of 1000 liters of water. Due to the narrow area, the water tank will be elevated above the bathroom with aluminum poles. If they get a water tank, they will be able to store 1000 liters water. This will allow them to collect water even when they are not showering and allow them to have steady water supply whenever they need to use it. 1000 liters is enough for all female students and teachers to take shower and also be on time for their daily errands. Students can concentrate more on their lessons. Furthermore, a wall will make students feel secure when they shower and prevent incidents of people peeping or photographing them.