Hygiene, Sanitation and Environmental Awareness
Hygiene, Sanitation and Environmental Awareness tests personal and food hygiene, safe water, waste disposal, vector control and pollution prevention.
Core rules
- Personal hygiene: handwashing with soap at critical times, bathing, oral care, clean nails, menstrual hygiene and safe disposal of sharps.
- Safe water: protect the source; boil water to a rolling boil, filter or chlorinate; store in a covered container with a ladle, not dipped hands.
- Food hygiene: wash hands and utensils; separate raw and cooked food; cook thoroughly; cover and refrigerate; protect from flies and dust.
- Sanitation: use toilets, keep drains clear, dispose of waste safely and control stagnant water that breeds mosquitoes.
- Waste: segregate biodegradable, recyclable and hazardous waste; follow reduce, reuse and recycle.
Worked example
A household has vegetable peels, plastic wrappers, a glass bottle and old batteries. Reasoning: peels are biodegradable and can be composted; wrappers and the bottle are recyclable if clean; batteries are hazardous and need a collection point, not the ordinary bin. Mixing them makes recycling harder and can leak chemicals.
Traps
Believing boiling removes chemical pollution; it kills microbes, not all chemicals. Throwing hazardous waste with household waste; storing water in an open pot; ignoring handwashing before eating; treating sanitation as only toilets.