Plight of school wash photo essay_swash+

The Plight of School WASH in Rural Kenya

Funding for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in Kenyan schools’ budget is a fraction of what is needed. Schools are forced to make choices between maintaining WASH improvements and other expenditures such as upkeep of classrooms.

School staff cite ‘lack of easy access to water’ as one of main reasons for poor hygiene at school. Students at this school have no water source on site.

The school relies on students to bring a few litres each day to supplement the school water supply.

One of the improvements made possible through the SWASH+ project was the construction of school boreholes, an on-site source of water.

When boreholes break, schools rely on unclean water from nearby rivers or streams.

A water chlorination or other treatment solutions, such as WaterGuard, should be used to make collected water safe for drinking. The SWASH+ project baseline data collection revealed that no schools tested positive for chlorine residual in school stored drinking water.

Once water is gathered and ideally treated it can go to waste. Taps on water vessels frequently break and

need repair. Due to limited government funding, parents are

often called on to provide funds to repair or replace supplies. However,

this can be a large burden for families in the area.

Toilet paper is a luxury and is rarely provided due to insufficient school WASH funding. Schools are not allocated money specifically for toilet paper or sanitary pads.

If schools decide to provide toilet paper or sanitary pads they must draw on funds designated for competing needs, such as test materials or building infrastructure (McMahon, 2011).

Schools also need to be budget for long-term maintenance for infrastructure like latrines. Over time, latrine doors break, iron roofs and sheets separating stalls rot, and latches do not close. Dilapidated latrines put school children’s health and safety at risk.

Additional funding for school WASH will help maintain the quality of school latrines. Unwashed, leaking and smelly latrines are less likely to be utilized by students.

Quality, not quantity of latrines was found by SWASH+ to be very important for student’s use of latrines at schools.

Students are typically

responsible for cleaning

latrines. At Wagai Primary

School students have long handled

brooms to keep them a safe

distance from contaminants.

Latrine cleaning can be a dirty job. Some schools cannot always afford proper tools for cleaning latrines. Children are reluctant to clean using short handled brooms made from reeds or tree branches.

Children in SWASH+ project schools were made aware of proper sanitation and hygiene practices through teacher trainings and health clubs. There is a need to reinforce these subjects through the school curriculum.

In addition, schools face the challenge of consistently providing supplies like soap, WaterGuard and anal cleansing materials so students can practice what they learn.

Keeping an ample supply of items like soap, bleach, and sanitary pads is a challenge. These pads were stored in a cupboard at the school and the packages were torn by mice.

Even when schools have supplies theft and proper storage can present challenges. Rodent-safe containers and locks help prevent product loss.

Schools throughout Kenya face a variety of challenges due to lack of funding and limited allocation of funds for school WASH. Thanks in part to SWASH+ research and advocacy, the Ministry of Education has doubled funding for WASH in primary schools in Kenya.

Further increases are needed. In addition,monitoring progress in WASH provision will be key for accountability and change in school WASH.

ReferencesMcMahon, S., Caruso, B., Obure, A., Rheingans, R. ‘Anal cleansing practices and

faecal contamination: a preliminary investigation of behaviours and conditions in schools in rural Nyanza Province, Kenya.’ (2011). Tropical Medicine and International Health. 16:12: 1536-1540.

Photography by CARE/Brendan Bannon. Photo essay by Julie Straw; edited by Malaika Cheney-Coker.

SWASH+ is a five-year applied research project to identify, develop, and test innovative approaches to school-based water, sanitation and hygiene in Nyanza Province, Kenya. The partners that form the SWASH+ consortium are CARE, Emory University, the Great Lakes University of Kisumu, the government of Kenya, and the former Kenya Water for Health Organisation (KWAHO), and Water.org. SWASH+ is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Water Challenge. For more information, visit www.swashplus.org.