Inclusive Sanitation Design for WASH Engineers Training Course

Course overview

WASH engineers are routinely asked to deliver sanitation facilities that meet coverage targets, yet many designs exclude older people, persons with disabilities, people managing menstruation, caregivers with young children, and users who face safety risks after dark. A latrine may be technically sound but unusable because the path is too steep, the door is too narrow, the transfer space is absent, the lighting is inadequate, or the emptying arrangement exposes workers and nearby communities to harm. This course equips engineers to identify and resolve these design failures before construction, rehabilitation, or procurement decisions lock them in.

Participants learn to translate inclusion commitments into engineering requirements for household, communal, institutional, and emergency sanitation systems. The course covers accessibility and universal design principles; disability, gender, age, and protection analysis; user consultation; accessible latrine and bathing-block layouts; menstrual hygiene management features; site selection; drainage; lighting; water points; and inclusive fecal sludge management. Participants apply the Sphere Handbook, WHO Sanitation Safety Planning approach, KoboToolbox data collection, and QGIS mapping to develop evidence-based design decisions, bills-of-quantities inputs, and supervision checks.

Delivery combines instructor-led technical sessions with drawing reviews, field-style accessibility audits, calculation exercises, and group design studios based on humanitarian settlement and low-income urban scenarios. Participants work from user profiles and site constraints to produce an Inclusive Sanitation Design Pack: a user-needs matrix, accessibility audit checklist, annotated layout, priority design specifications, risk controls, and an implementation action plan. The pack can be adapted for live projects, concept notes, tender documents, or construction supervision.

The course is designed for WASH engineers and technical staff who need practical design judgement rather than policy-level awareness alone. It is suitable for professionals working with NGOs, UN agencies, utilities, local authorities, engineering consultants, and contractors delivering sanitation infrastructure in development or humanitarian settings.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Conduct an accessibility and usability audit of sanitation facilities using a structured observation checklist
• Translate user profiles into measurable design requirements for paths, doors, cubicles, handrails, seating, lighting, and wash points
• Prepare an inclusive sanitation site layout with accessible circulation, privacy zones, drainage, and safe desludging access
• Apply Sphere Handbook indicators and universal design principles to sanitation design decisions
• Use KoboToolbox to create a user consultation and facility-access assessment form
• Map sanitation access barriers and service points in QGIS to support site-selection decisions
• Develop a sanitation safety risk register covering containment, emptying, transport, treatment, and reuse or disposal
• Produce an Inclusive Sanitation Design Pack containing specifications, drawings annotations, audit findings, and implementation actions

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• WASH Engineers — who design, rehabilitate, or supervise sanitation infrastructure in development and humanitarian programmes
• Sanitation Engineers — who need to incorporate accessibility, user safety, and service-chain risks into technical designs
• WASH Programme Managers — who approve designs, budgets, and delivery approaches for sanitation interventions
• Public Health Engineers — who link sanitation facility performance with hygiene, environmental health, and disease-risk controls
• Shelter and Settlement Technical Officers — who plan communal facilities, circulation routes, and services in camps or dense settlements
• Infrastructure Consultants and Contractors — who prepare drawings, specifications, bids, and construction quality-control plans

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic sanitation system components, including containment, pits or tanks, drainage, ventilation, handwashing facilities, and fecal sludge emptying. Experience reading simple site plans, dimensions, and construction drawings is helpful, as is familiarity with a current WASH project or facility type. Participants should bring a laptop capable of running QGIS and accessing a web browser for KoboToolbox exercises. Advanced hydraulic design, CAD expertise, disability-specialist qualifications, and prior use of QGIS or KoboToolbox are not required; complete beginners in these tools receive guided templates and step-by-step practice.

Training methodology

The course uses short engineering briefings followed by applied design work. Participants inspect sample plans and photographs using an accessibility audit checklist, interview simulated user groups through structured consultation tools, and revise layouts for real constraints such as limited plots, high water tables, flood exposure, and communal use. Small groups develop drawings, design notes, and risk controls for a settlement sanitation case. The final session is a design review panel in which each participant tests their Inclusive Sanitation Design Pack against user needs, Sphere requirements, constructability, operations, and maintenance.

Course outline

Day 1: Inclusion as an engineering design requirement

• Sanitation exclusion pathways across disability, age, gender, caregiving, and displacement
• Universal design principles for WASH infrastructure
• User profiles and functional-access requirements
• Sphere Handbook sanitation indicators and design implications
• Protection and safeguarding risks around sanitation facilities
• Structured facility accessibility audit methodology
• Participatory consultation methods for sensitive sanitation needs

Workshop: Participants conduct a desktop accessibility audit of a communal latrine plan and produce a ranked list of design failures and user impacts.

Day 2: Accessible facilities, layouts, and user experience

• Accessible route gradients, surfaces, widths, and resting points
• Cubicle dimensions, door swings, thresholds, and manoeuvring space
• Handrails, grab bars, seating, squat-pan adaptations, and transfer zones
• Privacy, locks, lighting, and visibility for personal safety
• Menstrual hygiene management features and disposal options
• Child-friendly and caregiver-inclusive sanitation features
• Accessible handwashing and bathing-point design details

Workshop: Participants annotate an existing facility drawing and produce a revised accessible cubicle and approach-route layout with dimensional notes.

Day 3: Site planning and evidence-led design decisions

• Inclusive site-selection criteria for households, schools, health facilities, and communal blocks
• Mapping access barriers, hazards, and service locations in QGIS
• KoboToolbox form design for user consultations and facility assessments
• Gender- and disability-disaggregated sanitation data collection
• Drainage, flooding, groundwater, and slip-risk considerations
• Water access, queuing space, and facility location trade-offs
• Community validation of design assumptions and priorities

Workshop: Participants build a KoboToolbox assessment form and use a QGIS map layer set to recommend a location for an accessible communal sanitation block.

Day 4: Inclusive sanitation across the service chain

• Containment options and accessible household sanitation adaptations
• Designing communal sanitation operations and cleaning arrangements
• Fecal sludge management service-chain mapping
• WHO Sanitation Safety Planning risk assessment steps
• Safe access for pit emptiers and desludging equipment
• Worker health, dignity, and exposure-control measures
• Operations, maintenance, and feedback mechanisms for inclusive services

Workshop: Participants develop a sanitation safety risk register for a communal facility, including control measures for users, cleaners, and emptying workers.

Day 5: Specifications, review, and project application

• Writing measurable inclusive sanitation design specifications
• Integrating accessibility requirements into bills of quantities
• Tender evaluation criteria for inclusive construction quality
• Construction supervision checkpoints and snagging lists
• Post-construction usability testing with diverse users
• Prioritising upgrades under budget and site constraints
• Inclusive Sanitation Design Pack structure and action planning

Workshop: Participants complete and present an Inclusive Sanitation Design Pack for a project case, receiving peer and instructor review against constructability, inclusion, and safety criteria.

Tools & standards covered

QGIS, KoboToolbox, Sphere Handbook, ISO 30500

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions