Come to the aid of schools with inadequate latrines
Pupils ease themselves in pit-latrines at a school in Uganda. Most government schools have such facilities in a sorry state. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- The government should allocate resources to areas such as Budaka that find themselves with limited pit-latrines for learners. We do not have to wait for health emergencies before we react
This week, this publication reported the plight of pupils in Budaka District who are at risk of contracting diseases due to the shortage of pit-latrines in most of the schools.
Budaka has 59 government-aided primary schools but most of them do not have enough pit-latrines due to the overwhelming population of learners.
At Budaka Family Helper Project Primary School, for example, the head teacher, Mr Eriya Poli, said despite the school having an enrolment of 2,411 learners, they have only 15 pit-latrine stances.
The school had taken more than 15 years without getting support in terms of pit-latrines until the last financial year. The pit-latrine-pupil ratio currently stands at 1:100 instead of the recommended 1:25.
The situation is not any different from other government-aided primary schools in the district.
As a result, pupils are forced to use the nearby bushes, share with teachers and in some extreme cases, avoid going to school.
Farmers on the other hand are caught up in the unfortunate situation. Agricultural productivity is affected since many of them can no longer tend to their farms because of the faeces and flies that litter the gardens.
Area leaders acknowledge the challenge of inadequate pit-latrines but say the district is constrained due to limited resources.
“We give priority to those schools that are so badly off, although it is true the challenge cuts across all schools. But some are in dire need,” the district senior education officer Khanifa Mugala was quoted to have said.
The Budaka District Chief Administrative Officer, Mr Richard Mugolo, said the district is only able to provide 20 pit-latrine stances per year due to resource constraints.
According to health experts, poor toilet practices can result in the spread of preventable diseases. Pupils in places such as Budaka risk contracting diseases such as worm infestation, diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera and dysentery.
Statistics indicate that 75 percent of Uganda's disease burden is linked to sanitation inefficiencies, with the lack of toilets as the key factor.
We, therefore, appeal to the government to allocate resources to areas such as Budaka that find themselves with limited pit-latrines for learners.
We do not have to wait for health emergencies before we acknowledge that adequate pit-latrines in schools are important.
Also, authorities should work towards having pit-latrines that can be emptied so that they can be used for a long time .
