Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan instructed the heads of the relevant departments during the 9 January meeting of the Government to create conditions for tourists arriving in Armenia so that they feel as comfortable as possible in our country.
In this context, Nikol Pashinyan also touched upon the issue of toilets in different facilities of the republic.
“You see, there is a 5-story restaurant open somewhere, with gilded chairs, etc., but when you open the toilet door and enter, it seems like you are in a disaster area. People invest $ 100,000 to build a building, and then you realize that they did not invest some $ 200, so that the area has a toilet, not only in terms of cleanliness, but also in the sense of urban planning. And we should have standards there too. That is to say, we should make it clear to people that we cannot build worth $ 500,000 building, build a restaurant and suppose that they did not think it worth to spend some $ 50 more to get a proper bathroom. It is really a civilization problem. This issue is not only a matter of sanitary but also urban development norms,” the Prime Minister said.
The film crew of Iravaban.net made a tour in 3 schools in Yerevan and found out what sanitary conditions were created for children living in Armenia. They are: School N71 after Nelson Stepanyan, School N1 after Stepan Shahumyan and School N67 after Yeghishe Charents.
The Minister of Health’s Decree N-12 of 2017 provides the standards that the school toilet must meet.
The order states that at least one toilet for the girls and one for the boys must be located on each floor of the school. In each building there should be a toilet for the staff.
This rule preserved in only one of the 3 schools we visited: School N 71 after Nelson Stepanyan.
Anna Yeghyan, the principal of school # 1, noted that the school has its own characteristics; it was built in 1928 and is the first school in Yerevan.
“It is special because the building conditions, the design of the building are different. It is built with other building materials and it has its peculiarity,” the director said.
The front of the school building, which is on Mashtots Avenue, looks pretty good, but the same cannot be said about the back of the building. It is rather careless, the wall is cracked; “I have been informed by the staff that the roof has been damaged due to severe winter, which in turn has caused facade damage and has remained so. That was 5-6 years ago, I wasn’t the director at the time. Work will be done at the earliest opportunity,” she said.
The order states: “Facility toilet area and equipment are kept clean, provided with liquid soap, electric hand dryers, or disposable paper towels, and toilet paper.”
The toilets of Shahumyan school were rather poor: This is not about cleanliness (it seems that everything possible was done), but about cracked walls, rusty pipes, and old urinals. It was warm in the classrooms, the temperature in one of the rooms was +24 ° C, it was quite cold in the toilets, and the temperature was below + 16° C. There were no locks on windows of the first floor.
Cleaning of classrooms and other teaching and auxiliary areas should be done after classes with open windows. Our film crew was in school right after classes. The toilets had a strong smell of detergents.
There were toilets on the ground floor and the second floor of school N67 after Yeghishe Charents. The toilet on the first floor was locked, the deputy director said, but teachers sometimes use it, and the pupils are not allowed to enter it.
This school also did not comply with the order signed by the Minister of Health. There are problems with ventilation. Apart from the toilets of Shahumyan School # 1, where there was the smell of cleaning fluids, the toilets of the other two schools were stinky. Toilet windows were locked or missing at all.
The photos show a locked toilet on the first floor, which is sometimes used by teachers. Teachers use either this or the girls’ toilet located on the 2nd floor. The deputy director mentioned that there had been problems with the pipes for several months, only one of the booths is working and in this case the bathroom is used as a storage room.
The temperature in the school was within the required norm limits, and the corridors were warm as well.
Most of the requirements stated in the order were met in Nelson Stepanyan School N 71. On the 1st and 2nd floors there were 2 toilets for boys and girls. There was soap, and toilet paper. The school was renovated several years ago with the efforts of the school’s benefactor.
There was also a problem with ventilation at this school. Hot water was missing in all three schools.
The order states: “The hot water attached to the sinks in the establishments should be no more than 37 degrees Celsius.”
Notably, all three schools are located in the center of Yerevan. Only one school met all the requirements, thanks to the benefactor’s support.
Yevgenya Hambardzumyan
