Towards A Sanitation Friendly-Ethic In Schools

By

Joachim Ibeziako Ezeji

Email:santajayinc@yahoo.com

 

 

I see a compelling need to talk about sanitation in schools, especially public schools in Nigeria today. Schools in this context include the crèche, nursery, primary, secondary and tertiary schools. The need to raise this issue is to call attention to a system rot that is quietly being ignored despite its unwholesome damage.

 

I am well aware that many tertiary institutions in Nigeria lack basic facilities like a latrine. You can visit any university anywhere in Nigeria and request to use the latrine. It is either you find your way to the students’ hostel were you will be faced with very dirty and filthy latrines or you endure the discomfort that goes with unexpected urge to defecate (a.k.a. call of nature) at odd times.

 

My recent experience at the University of Calabar, Nigeria is nothing to write home about. I had left my abode at the university guest house for the school library to transact some business. It was there that I felt the unfriendly urge to visit the toilet. I had in the haste to meet an early appointment at the library hurried my early morning bath without bothering to answer the call of nature. It dawned on me when this uninvited urge came that as big and modern as the university library looked; it had no functional public convenience. What looked like one, was in total disrepair, filthy and smelly. To worsen the situation, none of the nearby offices or departments had any latrine/toilet open for visitors like me. It was then it became obvious to me what the situation really is.

 

The situation in Calabar was no better than those elsewhere, like Owerri, especially the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), the Imo State University as well as their counterparts in Uturu, Port Harcourt, Abakiliki and Ekpoma etc. In Owerri, the students living in the Ihiagwa campus’ hostels of FUTO are already accustomed to open defecation. Responsible for this is the lingering situation of filthy latrines; a case that is made worse by scarcity of water and overpopulation of hostels.

 

Down the educational ladder are secondary and primary schools. The situation in these places is no better but worse. Latrines are virtually non existent. Where they are at all found, they only exist solely for the use of the teachers. Dormitories in these schools rarely have clean functional latrines. A visit to Government College Owerri, the number one college in Imo State, said it all. Water taps there have long dried up while the toilets are ‘shut down’. One concerned old boy of the school is currently putting up a private effort at rehabilitating one of the comatose toilet systems in the school. Open defecation is already a pattern of life for the bulk of the students in that school. Sadly this school is situated just a stone throw from the government house in Owerri.

 

My conclusion from these discoveries is that sanitation is not yet an issue to owners and operators of these schools. This is made worse by the fact more children and youths are enrolling into school than ever before in history.

 

But can the challenge of providing education of good quality be truly achieved in a debased and unsanitary environment? The barriers to achieving quality education are no doubt many and include, among others, overcrowded classrooms, poorly qualified and/or dispirited teachers, lack of appropriate educational material, and poor conditions in the learning environment.

 

Although adequate sanitary facilities and hygiene practices form essential components of an enabling learning environment and quality education, the reality is that many schools have no latrines /toilets at all; toilet facilities which are heavily used and filthy; or toilets, water supply, and hand washing facilities which are clean but are not used or are locked and inaccessible to the students.

 

When a school lacks basic water supply and sanitation facilities and its students have poor hygiene habits, the incidence of major childhood and other human illnesses such as diarrhea and helminthes infections among its students will increase.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) report 2004 showed that 88% of diarrhea disease is attributed to unsafe water supply, inadequate sanitation and hygiene. It reported that improved water supply reduces diarrhea by between 6% and 25%.Improved sanitation reduces diarrhea by 32%.These facts are supported by the scientific discovery that one gram of faeces can contain 10 million viruses,1 million bacteria,1 thousand parasite cysts, and a hundred worm eggs.

 

Taking cognizance of the above fact, it therefore becomes imperative to underscore that faeces remains the major source of diarrheal pathogens. These pathogens enter the environment if not disposed safely, and are then spread by the four F’s: flies, on fingers, in fluids and via surfaces, such as fields. Cutting these routes of transmission is key to the prevention of diarrheal disease.

 

But which of the many possible hygiene practices would eliminate the most disease? Boiling or sterilizing water in the home or school would reduce diarrhea, but preventing faecal pathogens from ever reaching water is likely better and more cost effective, same for food and snacks. The most effective way therefore is the adequate disposal of faeces and hand washing with soap after touching it. Such touching occurs after using a toilet or when cleaning a child after defecation. Some respiratory tract infections, including the SARS-causing corona virus, are also transmitted via the faecal-oral route or simply on hands, so hand washing helps prevent these infections as well.

 

There is no doubt therefore that poor sanitation and its consequences particularly ill-health adversely affects school participation, lowering enrollment rates, increasing absenteeism, and contributing to poor classroom performance and early school dropout. It also decreases learning capacity as measured in educational performance, outcomes, and productivity.

 

The lack of appropriate sanitary facilities may discourage students/pupils from attending school; girls, who are menstruating, in particular, would rather not go to school than have to deal with the lack of privacy.

 

However, schools also offer an opportunity to reach the majority of the world’s children, who at one point or another are in the care of the school, with a “model” for sanitation. Because the unsanitary conditions typical of many school toilets send the wrong message to students about the importance of sanitation and hygiene, schools can become ideal places to establish good hygiene (and other) behaviors as well as to provide strong environmental models that can serve as examples. Perhaps we forget that children/students who learn good hygiene in school can also become important health promoters everywhere especially at home.

 

The existence of a positive environment is a central principle for the success of hygiene, sanitation, and water in schools programs. To establish a favorable policy environment that supports sustainable investment in hygiene, sanitation, and water in schools, political commitment is needed. To that effect, school sanitation needs to have its place on the political agenda.

 

A second issue to address in the creation of a favorable policy environment is the promotion of a demand-responsive approach to the delivery of hygiene, sanitation, and water services. Under such an approach, schools make informed choices regarding their level of participation, service level, and service delivery mechanisms. This type of approach allows schools to decide whether to undertake investments in hygiene, sanitation, and water, and enables them to identify the preferred technology and level of service based on willingness to contribute. A demand-responsive approach will ensure that school staff, children, school hygiene committees, and other important stakeholders participate in the planning, implementation, operation, and maintenance of hygiene, sanitation, and water services.

 

Third, if the existing structure is not conducive to making sustainable investment in hygiene, sanitation, and water, institutional reform may be needed to ensure that the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders are defined in such a way that schools manage their own facilities, community-based organizations, NGOs, or private sector entities provide goods and services, and the government facilitates service provision.

I also think that projects must be promoted and implemented in a broader context that includes the home and community.

 

School hygiene, sanitation, and water can make enormous difference in the lives of school children, particularly girls. A clean, safe, secure, and enabling learning environment in which students can learn and perform to their full potential is a vital start in any child’s life and a basis for development. Let us make sure that every child is given this opportunity, as an investment for a sustainable future.

 

The author is the CEO of Rural Africa Water Development Project (RAWDP), a Nigerian Water and Sanitation NGO based in Owerri, Nigeria.