Easy-Build Handwashing Station

Without running water, how can you wash your hands? Without running water, how will your neighbors, your whole community, wash their hands? If they can't wash their hands — they're bound to get sick, and spread disease.

We all need a way to wash our hands when a major (or even minor) disaster takes out safe running water. Same when we're away from plumbing, like at a farmer's market or a camping trip.

Here's the answer: A PORTABLE HANDWASHING STATION that's easy, cheap, and quick to build, made from a plastic bucket. You can make one, and take it on a camping trip. Or you can call a work party and make a bunch. If your community has 4 or 5 of these stacked in garages every few blocks (along with stored water), they'll be ready to set up immediately when needed.

How many do you need? The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least 1 sanitation station for every 20 people. If you have fewer than that, people start getting sick. So, a stack of 5 Handwashing Stations can help protect 100 people.

Let's get to work!

MATERIALS

1. 5-gallon bucket, with lid.
2. Tip: Buckets are FREE. Ask businesses that receive food in buckets (groceries, delis, bakeries, restaurants) to set them aside for you. Otherwise, they go in the landfill.
3. Try to get the lid with the bucket. Separate lids cost about $2. The lid does not have to seal perfectly. It's there to keep leaves and such out of the water.
4. 
   
5. Tip: If you want to use the Handwashing Station indoors, or don't want to create a mud puddle, use a 2nd bucket to catch the water.
6. Spigot. Cooler Spigot, NOT a Carboy Spigot.
7. Cost: About $3, down to $1.30 in bulk.
8. Scrap of wood, about 12 inches long, 3 to 4 inches wide, to be the foot pedal
9. 2 Offset Drapery Hooks. Cost: About 15 cents each. See photo
10. Sturdy string or cord, about 3 yards.
11. Bar of soap, on a string or in a nylon stocking.

TOOLS

1. Electric drill
2. 3/4 inch Hole Saw (explained in video)
3. 3/4 inch Spade Bit will also work, but edges of hole will be a bit rougher.
4. Hammer
5. Nail

Here's how it works.

The Handwashing Stations stack compactly for storage:

Unscrew the spigot, slide the washers onto the spigot stem, and screw the hex nut onto the spigot stem. Leave the string on the spigot, but untie the knot to the foot pedal string.

Stow the spigot inside the bucket. The bucket lids & foot pedals can sit on top of the stack.

Thanks to

Patrick Pangburn, videographer and director

Trampoline Town, for a quiet space to film

EVCNB, Emergency Volunteer Corps of Nehalem Bay, for the cooler-spigot-pulled-upward design paradigm, and for leading the way on widely distributed DIY handwashing stations