Safe water: Life or doom for schools?

By Carol Natukunda
and Moses Odongo

IT is a big surprise to Beatrice Nyangoma, a 40-year-old banker, that her daughter’s back-to-school shopping list is different this term. The number one item on the list is a “five-litre mineral water bottle!”

“My daughter tells me that they drink water from the tap at school, unboiled water!”

She is not the only parent in shock. During the first term, Marvin, a Senior One student in one of the city schools, kept calling his mother to come and visit him, even before the visiting day.

Reason? He was thirsty and he desperately needed clean water to drink.
Children are bearing the brunt of unsafe drinking water in school.

According to the 2005 report on school health in Uganda by the ministries of health and education, less than 50% of boarding schools in Uganda provide boiled or chlorinated water for drinking.

Statistics further show that only 46% of schools in the country have safe water supply sources in form of piped water, borehole and protected springs within the school compound.
This, the report, says, leaves the majority of children to fend for themselves by drinking water from unprotected sources.

Global statistics also show that children in sub-Saharan Africa are the most deprived.
Only 57% of children are drinking safe water, according to the United Nations Children’s agency (UNICEF).  
Some schools say it is hard to meet the demand for every child in the school.

“I think that is their (student’s) responsibility. They buy from kiosks or in the school canteen. For us as a school, we provide good meals,” says James Okolong, director of Teso Parents’ School.
Other schools say it is hard to meet the demand for every student.
Mary Hill high school in Mbarara, uses chemicals to purify it for safe consumption. However, students only have one glass of water at meal times.

“We place jerrycans of purified water in the dinning hall for students to get at least each one glass during meal times ,” says Margaret Atim, the head-teacher.
Daudi Mulondo, the head-teacher of Kiira College Butiki, says it was providing the required amount of boiled water for every student proved hard.

“But we have acquired a tank that has a filtering and a purifying system and I am convinced that students will now have enough drinking water,” Mulondo says. At Makerere Highway College, a handful of jerricans of the boiled drinking are placed in halls of residence, but some students use it to bathe when there is a water shortage.

The cost of bottled water
As parents try to come to their children’s rescue, the cost of bottled water does not come easy.
For instance, a five-litre bottle of mineral water costs about sh4,500, while a carton of 24 bottles of 500ml is at about sh11,000 in retail shops.

This implies that if a parent has to provide this amount at least twice a term (beginning of term and visiting day), they would spend about sh22,000 to sh30,000 per term on water.
The plastic mineral water bottles also come with environmental challenges for schools.

At Highway College, Kajjansi, the school had to deal with overflowing latrines because they were the only dumping ground for plastics.

Even with an incinerator at Hillside High school, Ntungamo, bottles still find their way to the neighbouring gardens
In the US, some schools have banned the mineral water bottles, insisting on only environmentally friendly re-useable containers.

But this has also raised concern as some parents have swapped water with sodas, while those with containers have improper hygiene.

Looming danger
Inadequate water perpetuates the cycle of water-related illnesses and has debilitating effects on school attendance and the children’s potential to learn in school. Health experts recommend that one should drink between eight and 10 glasses of clean water a day. Moses Okullu, a medical officer at Mulago Hospital, says: “There are several bacteria in unclean water and can cause a complexity of diseases; Typhoid, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis E and Guinea worm are the commonly known ones.”
“Even if you are drinking safe water, if it is inadequate it leads to dehydration which retards human growth,” he further says.
Learning can be tough for a child facing a daily reality of dirty drinking water, according to UNICEF.
About 1.6 million children across the world die annually from these diarrhoea related diseases and millions more are left malnourished, weak and unable to learn, the agency says. Ironically, the Ministry of Education is indefferent.
“How do you provide meals, for instance, without drinking water?” Aggrey Kibenge, the ministry’s spokesman wonders.

Water purifying options
Public health specialists call for affordable water purifiers if boiling water is proving costly for schools. They remove about 99.9% of bacteria and other parasites.

“Chronic diarrhoea in children remains a lead cause of death,” says Dr. Sam Okware, the commissioner for community health.

“Purifiers can make a huge difference.”
The Population Service International (PSI) markets WaterGuard solution. A single WaterGuard tablet treats 20 litres of water and can be purchased in strips of two for sh200, providing a pocket friendly option for those unable to purchase a bottle of the solution at a go.

Recently, another water purifier, Life Straw, manufactured by the European-based Vestergaard Frandsen, was launched in Uganda.

Thomas Hansen, the company’s regional director for East Africa, says it is a container that purifies water instantly.
“With the Life Straw, one purifies what they are going to take at the time or at least 10 litres in an hour,” Hansen explained.