According to UNICEF philippines, Children suffer disproportionately from diarrhea diseases – with more than 3.5 million children under five dying every year from diarrhea and pneumonia-related diseases. In the Philippines pneumonia is the 3rd leading cause of deaths among children under five, estimated at more than 10,000 children. Meanwhile, 10,000 die every year from diarrhea and the Department of Health (DOH) cited it as amongst the leading causes of death with a rate of 16 deaths per 100,000 children.
The simple act of washing hands with soap can reduce the incidence of diarrheal rates among children under five by more than 40 per cent, and respiratory infections by nearly 25 percent.( UNICEF philippines)
This is tippy tap looks like. photo credits to http://www.unicef.org/philippines/mediacentre
Washing of our hands by soap and water removes bacteria and viruses that caused infection.
What is Tippy Tap?
The Tippy Tap is a technology first used in Africa and consists of transparent bottle or can with a tiny hole that releases a small amount of water each time it is tipped. The “faucet” is enough to provide a clean handwash. Tippy Taps are cost-efficient and can be easily replicated and produced in schools and barangays that do not have adequate facilities for handwashing.(UNICEF philippines).
This device is use for hand washing. Through hand washing we can help ourselves not to be prone in bacteria considering our hands is one of the dirtiest part of our body.
Tippy tap is cheaper, less water and low tech device use for washing hands in areas where there is no running water.
Any locally available container can be use in making a Tippy Tap. For example a 4.5 container, two poles for its stand and two thin sticks of about one meter, gravel or small stones and a tools to dig.
How to make a Tippy Tap?
Here are the steps:
Step 1, Find a suitable place in your garden to install the tippy-tap and dig two holes into the ground one meter apart. Put the two poles in the hole and strengthen the base.
Step 2, Tie or nail the smaller stick horizontally to the two vertical poles.
Step 3, Push a nail through the container where you want it to alternate.
Step 4, Make a hole near the cap to let the air in.
Step 5, Make 2-3 holes to allow water to pour out.
Step 6, Pass a string through the first two holes you made to suspend the container from the horizontal stick.
Step 7, A small notch is made in the center of the horizontal string to prevent the string from slipping away.
Step 8, Take a string and tie it to the mouth of the container. This is the main pulling string which will be tied to a stick that will act as a foot peddle.
Step 9, Use one more small string to tie the main pulling string to the base of one of the vertical poles.
Step 10, Tie the pulling string to the foot peddle.
Step 11, Fill the plastic container with water.
Step 12, Dig a hole and fill it with gravel or small stones to soak away water. This not only prevents the formation of a muddy puddle, but also avoids mosquito breeding.
That’s it. Water starts to pour when the foot peddle is pressed and stops automatically when the pressure on the foot peddle is taken off. Now you can actually make your own version of Tippy Tap.
Herein Philippines Tippy Tap is already introduced by some organisation like UNICEF Philippines and Signpost Philippines with their partner organisations.
We should help our community to save water since water is very essential for us to live it not only good for drinking but it is also used for our daily activities, like in our hygiene purposes.
A Clean hand helps us not to be prone in any diseases that surrounds us.
References: http://permaculturenews.org/2014/06/10 http://www.unicef.org/philippines/mediacentre_14413.html
devcomconvergence 