Schoolboys make toilets from plastic water bottles

While the Modi government is all set to discourage plastic use through a ban on single-use plastic in the coming days, a dozen students of the Kendriya Vidhyalaya in Bundi district, with the help of their science teacher, have developed eco friendly boys urinals in the school by using 20-litre empty plastic bottles, that too at dirt cheap costs.

The project, which cost just around Rs 1,000 for one set of urinal, not just provides toilet facility for the students and helps in maintaining hygienic in the school, but also utilises the plastic bottles, which otherwise are a waste.

The idea for the project came as Abhinna Arun Saxena (13), a school student who is now in Class 7, faced difficulty in using the school toilets as they were too high for him to use when he was in Class 5. This year, Abhinna’s classmates, with the help of their science teacher, Amit Tiwari (36), resolved the problem for the primary school students.

“Around a dozen school boys of Class 7 bought six empty plastic mineral water bottles of 20-litre capacity each in total Rs 100 and cut five bottles in the shape of urinals and one in the shape of wash basin,” said Tiwari, while informing about the project.

Students also bought plastic drain pipes for Rs 900 and a drainage system was developed by linking the pipes to the bottlenecks like a customary urinal and wash basin, which were all tied on the walls. “We developed the toilet in merely around Rs 1,000 which is not only cost-effective, but also serves the purpose of plastic waste utilisation,” Abhinna said.

Informing about the initiative, Tiwari said, “Kendriya Vidhyalaya runs in a temporary government leased building, as the school does not have its own building and there are only two toilets having urinals for around 250 boys and four toilets for around 150 girl students.”

While the girls did not face much of a problem because of their less numbers, boys, particularly the primary school boys, suffered due to the lack of toilets. “So, we decided to resolve the problem of boys toilet,” Tiwari added. “Although the school toilet had walls on two sides, it was open from two sides, so we established a fibre sheet on two sides, which cost us Rs 3,000 more,” Tiwari said.

Of the five urinals, two have been placed at lower height for the primary students and three have been placed at normal height for other students.

Tiwari said efforts are underway to develop a toilet for the girl students also.

Sri Arobindo Society has awarded Tiwari with the ‘Teacher Innovation Award’ in August this year, which he received from Union human resource development minister RC Pokhriyal in Delhi.