Providing schools with access to this information on the different options for handwashing facility designs is especially crucial, now more than ever, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. With schools set to reopen and resume normal teaching activities, it is important that the school is able to readily provide its students access to handwashing facilities at all times, as handwashing with soap remains one of the most cost-effective measures to protect against the COVID-19 virus.

To address this issue, the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Religious Affairs, supported by GIZ Fit for School, together with UNICEF, and SNV came up with a Handwashing Facilities Manual for Indonesia, a catalogue of the different design options for group handwashing facilities available to schools. Drawing inspiration from the 2016 GIZ-UNICEF publication Scaling Up Group Handwashing in Schools: Compendium of Group Washing Facilities Across the Globe, the guide was adapted to the specifically address the Indonesian context.

The handwashing facility options range from simple designs, such as tippy taps, to more advanced facilities that utilizes a piped water system. The manual consists of five chapters, addressing the importance of handwashing, when and how you should wash your hands, the basic principles in building handwashing facilities, the design options for handwashing facilities, and how to manage your handwashing facilities.

The manual can be downloaded from the official website of the Indonesia MOEC here (http://ditpsd.kemdikbud.go.id/index.php/panduan-dan-pedoman/)