By: SHALLON S. GONLOR
SANNIQUELLIE, NIMBA CO.— A staggering number of government schools in Nimba County have expressed deep concerns about the lack of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) facilities.
Even in schools where toilets are present, their quality is often poor. Half of the schools in the county do not have hand washing facilities, which is crucial for maintaining hygiene. Safe and adequate water supply and sanitation in schools are prerequisites for the right to basic education for school children and the achievement of goals 4 and 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in schools is fraught with inadequacy of toilet and hand washing facilities, and poor sustainability mechanisms that threaten its success. This paper assessed the operation and sustainability of WASH in schools in the Nimba County School System operated by the Ministry of Education in Liberia. The report highlights a significant issue affecting adolescent girls, particularly in rural areas. Many drop out of school due to difficulties in obtaining sanitary pads. Improving menstrual health management services in schools could help retain these girls and reduce absenteeism, contributing to better educational outcomes.
Despite some progress, these school administration’s efforts to enhance water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services face significant challenges. Alarmingly, 95% percent of the schools’ population still practiced open defecation, posing severe health risks. Interviews held captured the understanding and experiences of students, head teachers, health officers, and officials of the Nimba County School System on the phenomena. The findings indicate that WASH is poorly managed, even though, the schools visited had some established WASH facilities. WASH in these schools was bedeviled with challenges such as inadequate toilets and hand-washing facilities.
The study also calls for the formation of student WASH clubs and sanitation brigades to promote the operation and sustainability of WASH in schools. Access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) remains central to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where access to these services has been recognized as a human right.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4 and 6 of the SDGs aim to ensure universal, sustainable, and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water, adequate sanitation, and hygiene by 2030. The quest to prevent and reduce the effects of poor access to good quality facilities pressured calls for immediate effect in the Nimba County School System.
Among the many schools so far, the New Sanniquellie Public School is highly hit by lack of water, sanitation, and hygiene threatening the health and safety of students, especially children and girls being vulnerable to diarrhea disease deaths and menstrual health. Student Genevieve opinions: Yes, we don’t have good toilets and drinking water on our campus. When we want to drink safe water and use the toilet, we can leave our campus to run outside in people’s homes to ask for help”.
She added: “This is affecting us because sometimes while in the classroom during lesson presentations, we can be forced to run outside the campus to use other people’s private bathrooms. She expressed concern about the impact of inadequate Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) facilities in her school and many government schools on girl-child education. Inadequate sanitation and water in schools jeopardize not only students’ health but also their attendance. Girls in particular are likely to be kept out of school if there are no sanitation facilities.
Student Genevieve stressed that the lack of good sanitation services challenged their menstruation care while in school. “Sometimes we have to abandon classes and lessons just to go home to attend to our menstrual health when our receiving time abruptly comes”. Something she noted does not august well for them as women in school.
In addition, children and girls in school attending the New Sanniquellie Public School and many government schools in Nimba County are the vast majority vulnerable to health hazards and consequently are affected the most.
Further speaking the principal of the New Sanniquellie Public School, Mr. Newah Damay “It is true. We have a serious latrine problem on this campus”. “The few have had were built years ago and are now damaged. Therefore, our students are constrained thereby bucutting classes and lessons to go in their various homes to defecate, which they can never return to school. This is a long-time situation and we have communicated with the rightful education authority in the county down to this education district office, Lemuel Saye” the school principal confirmed.
Also speaking, Sanniquellie Mah Education District Officer, Lemuel G. Saye. “Not only the WASH facilities. Even the school environment and its building needed swift intervention. So, especially the WASH facilities in the institution is in deplorable conditions”. Echoing previous speakers, students, head teachers, health officers, and officials of the Nimba County School System call to action for WASH in schools highlights key messages to secure commitment and mobilize action from government and relevant stakeholders.
Safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene are crucial to human health and well-being. Safe WASH is not only a prerequisite to health but contributes to livelihoods, school attendance, and dignity; helps to create resilient communities living in healthy environments. The primary goal of WASH is to improve child health and school performance by reducing the likelihood of children being infected with water and sanitation-related diseases.
Furthermore, it encourages children to demonstrate good hygiene practices to their families and community. Related to the foregoing, schools are required to implement appropriate WASH initiatives to ensure a safe and healthy environment that is clean and free of bacteria that cause infections such as diarrhea, cholera, and dysentery. Liberia is at risk for cholera and diarrhea outbreaks given the situation of poor sanitation, hygiene, and lack of water in most schools and communities.
Sanitation is very poor, with the vast majority of people in rural areas lacking decent toilets and latrines, and having to defecate in the open instead. About 42 percent of Liberia’s population practices open defecation according to the Joint Monitoring Programme 2017 (JMP 2017). For school-going children, the lack of WASH facilities in schools spreads disease and results in missed days of learning. For girls who have started to menstruate, the absence of separate girls’/boys bathrooms discourages them from coming to school on menstrual days and contributes to drop-out.
