• Sandhyaa PM
• Madan Kumar PD
• Poorni S

Abstract: Lack of clean water coupled with access to contaminated water has only resulted in increase in spread of infectious diseases, especially among the rural children. Further the national sample survey in 2018 showed only 35.8% of Indians wash their hands with soap before eating and 74.1% washed their hands after defecation. In spite of the continued efforts by the governmental and private agencies to encourage the habit of adequate hand washing, especially before and after eating and defecation, lack of basic facilities including absence or malfunction of water storage tanks and taps hinder this process. The lack of tap facilities force the users to use a mug to draw water from the storage tank which lead to contamination of the water, ruling out the advantages of washing hands. These basic facilities are not only absent in public places but also in many households in rural India where running taps are a rare accessory. In view of these barriers faced, the authors propose a new design of Water Dispenser which can be constructed using locally available resources and hence reduces the cost involved in the construction of tanks and the necessary tap facilities. This not only reduces the initial financial burden at a rural/resource limited setting, but also reduces the recurring cost of maintenance over a period of time. Further this design can be constructed using minimal labour and expertise and can be ideally done at rural/resource limited school setting by the assistance of the students and staff of that particular place/institution.

rural population, water borne diseases, hand washing, cost-effective

"Development of a Cost-effective Water Dispenser for hand washing at a rural/resource limited setting – A concept note", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 7, page no.d123-d132, July-2022, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2207314.pdf

"Development of a Cost-effective Water Dispenser for hand washing at a rural/resource limited setting – A concept note", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 7, page no. ppd123-d132, July-2022, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2207314.pdf