Healthcare experts want more funding for WASH in schools

Aug 11, 2022

“When we assessed to try and establish whether the schools were WASH-friendly, we found out that only 54 out of 100 schools were WASH-friendly,” she noted.

Uganda Water and Sanitation Network (UWASNET) Executive Director, Yunia Musaazi interracting with one of the participants. (Photos by Jeff Andrew Lule)

Jeff Andrew Lule
Journalist @New Vision

HEALTH | PHC | WASH | SCHOOLS

Public Health Care (PHC) experts have raised concern over the deteriorating situation of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in schools, which they say is likely to increase infections among pupils.

During a one-day national dialogue to share experiences on WASH in schools at the Uganda Water and Sanitation Network (UWASNET) in Luzira on Wednesday, several experts pointed out the inadequate financing of the Government in schools for the WASH facilities.

This, they say, exposes children, especially in primary schools, to poor hygiene, especially among the girls, which at times might lead to the transmission of various infections and at times forces some girls to leave during their menstruation.

Some of the participants at the dialogue

Some of the participants at the dialogue

The UWASNET executive director, Yunia Musaazi, said the government needs to increase funding in schools to ensure adequate WASH facilities in different schools.

She also noted that school leaders and management committees need to ensure there is adequate water, and toilets for all pupils.

Jacinta Nekesa, a senior technical manager for the Uganda Sanitation for Health Activity (USHA) program under USAID, said the dialogue was aimed at deliberating on how to deal with the gaps.

She noted that thousands of schools still lack clean water and decent toilets, among other WASH facilities.

Musa Birungi

Musa Birungi

“As USHA, we do baseline to find out, what the situation, on WASH in schools and we intervene based on those findings." "Our inventions involve construction, what we call hardware, and also software (like capacity building, information provision, and training the necessary stakeholders"),” she explained.

She noted that the program works in more than 100 schools in the North, East, and Central West regions.

“When we assessed to try and establish whether the schools were WASH-friendly, we found out that only 54 out of 100 schools were WASH-friendly,” she noted.

Nekesa said they are following up on the 46 schools to support them with the required facilities to reach the level of WASH friendliness.

Some of the participants at the dialogue 02

Some of the participants at the dialogue 02

The Mpigi District Education Officer, Deo Ssekyoledde, said there is a need to streamline special funding for WASH in schools.

“The government does not have a specific budget to address WASH in schools." So, what we get is majorly a development grant, which is budgeted and allocated to work plans at the district level. The greater percentage of the grant is mainly used to construct pit latrines, incinerators, and urinals in schools,” he noted.

He stressed that at times you find a situation where, given the need, all the grants go to the construction of teachers' houses, buying furniture, or constructing classrooms.

“To address WASH issues, it requires a specific grant to strictly address WASH issues." " This is what we want to advocate for,” he added. 

The Senior Education Officer Basic Education Department at the Ministry of Education and Sports, Musa Birungi, said they are trying to use school children as a channel of giving out critical messages on how to improve the WASH situation in terms of operation and maintenance, cleaning, and in terms of mobilizing parents to come and support WASH in schools for sustainability. 

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