A Tale Of The Taps: Which Hand-Washing Station Is Best In Emergencies?

In times of health emergencies and humanitarian disasters where water is scarce, people worldwide have relied on the Tippy Tap. It's a DIY hand-washing station developed by aid workers that can be made fast with readily available materials: sticks, string and a water container.

But for heavy-duty use — washing up several times a day during a pandemic that has stretched beyond a year, for example — a makeshift Tippy Tap just won't cut it.

Unfortunately, even with new innovations, there is no one-size-fits-all hand-washing solution for every crisis, says Michelle Farrington, a public health expert at Oxfam, an international aid group that has been implementing alternatives to the Tippy Tap.

And no hand-washing station can fix the biggest problem: reliable and convenient a hand-washing expert and senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.