Water and sanitation project helps rural schoolchildren

A pilot project to improve water services and sanitation infrastructure in Swaziland's rural schools has been so successful that the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Swazi government and other health sector organisations are considering expanding it nationally. The project was launched last year in Shiselweni region in the south and Lubombo in the east, as a way of improving water delivery to schoolchildren. An evaluation of the project was completed this week. With UNICEF providing most of the construction material, nearly three dozen schools in drought-affected areas were equipped for the first time with modern toilets and sinks to promote proper hygiene. Boreholes were also drilled at some schools to ensure a reliable water supply. "There is no doubt that the availability of clean, useable and reliable toilets within the school premises has proven to be of tremendous convenience to both students and teachers alike. Most of the schools made mention of the fact that, prior to the project, the students' time was taken up by toilet queues; mention was also made of the practice of using the 'bush toilet' for those who could not wait for the toilet queues. Needless to say, this posed a health hazard," the project assessment survey reported. Teachers reported that they had noticed a marked improvement in the students' attitude to basic cleanliness, which would help curb absenteeism and the potential outbreak of disease. School children said they were now encouraging their parents to construct latrines at home, the survey noted. In their own assessment of the project, pupils at Osabeni primary school in Shiselweni wrote, "Before the borehole was fixed we used to bring water from the river, which we collected after school and then brought with us the next morning. It takes about two hours to go to the river and back." During the construction phase, teachers volunteered their time and personal vehicles to help with the collection of water and river sand, community members mixed the concrete used for construction, and most of the labourers were unskilled but received training on the job. "We trained by watching the builders hired by the NGO. Now we can use the same principles to build our own latrines at home," said Amos Maphalala, the school committee chairman of Sigcaweni Primary School. However, the lack of water caused by the ongoing drought, now in its third year, was threatening to undermine not only the maintenance of the new construction work but also other projects at rural schools, such as school feeding and gardens.