By John Tugume.
The chairperson of Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Silas Aogon, has said sh600b is needed to fix the dire situation of WASH in schools in the country.
Aogon was speaking during the two-day WASH symposium in Kampala late June when he said as legislators they will do everything possible to appropriate money for WASH.
He said some presentations by partners about the dire situation had opened their eyes as legislators and will influence how they make future financial decisions.
“How is government going to reposition itself, reimagine issues of WASH in schools, how do we raise money, how do we rationalize government agencies to see that we have something going for WASH?” he wondered.
“In terms of deploying resources where should money go? We are going to have a big discussion and WASH in schools should not be ignored. We must be ready to miss out on other issues in terms of opportunity cost and concentrate on WASH,” the MP for Kumi Municipality said.
“We are talking about boreholes, the distance walked to access water points. We need to accept that we must make WASH top priority, “As legislators, we shall continue pushing for this money until it is allocated. It might not take one year, but we shall keep advocating for it,” Aogon said.
The Minister of Education and Sports who is also the First Lady, Janet Museveni called for more funding to go towards water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in schools to ensure the safety of learners in schools.
Mrs Museveni who was represented by education state minister Moricu Kaducu at the WASH symposium in Kampala on Monday said latest reports had indicated that a number of schools did not have enough sanitation facilities such as latrines.
“The most recent study on WASH in schools is the School Microplanning handbook (2019). Overall access to water was 58% and 73% for primary and secondary schools respectively. About 42% of primary schools and 27% of secondary schools do not have access to safe water,” Mrs Museveni said.
She added that water is an indispensable input in prevention of disease transmission and “in the post-COVID-19 lockdown period, it is needed for all schools to be able to meet the ministry of health standard operating procedures.”
The symposium which was organized by the Ministry of Education and Sports in collaboration with Ministry of Water and Environment, Ministry of Health and Uganda Parliamentary Forum on WASH (UPF WASH) with support from UNICEF, UNHCR, GIZ, UWASNET, IRC, CIDI, Water 4 People, Water for Life, BRAC, AMREF, WaterAid, Evidence Action, peas, Save the Children, Plan International run under the theme, Re-imagining water, sanitation and hygiene services: leaving no children behind.
Mrs Museveni said the reports indicated that pupil to stance ration stood at 71:1 which was well below the recommended national standard of 40:1.
“Further analysis based on gender showed girls stance ration as 68:1 while for boys’ stance ratio was 72:1 n primary schools. In secondary schools, girls’ stance ratio was 48:1 and for boys’ it was 51:1,” Mrs Museveni said.
The worst hit district, according to the First Lady was Buliisa, where the stance ration stood at 648:1 for girls and 844:1 for boys.
The minister further noted that only 56% of primary schools and 67% of secondary schools had handwashing facilities.
She recommended rapid assessment of the status of WASH in schools to determine those which urgently need services so that existing data can be updated.
“I would like to strongly propose the ministry of education and sports continued collaboration with partners to improve WASH in schools. The leadership of the ministry in terms of reaching out to those schools that are more vulnerable is needed and commitment from partners need to be sought at all levels,” she said.
Mrs Museveni said: “Government of Uganda, through Parliament and ministry of finance, planning and economic development should provide WASH in schools specific grants to districts to support schools improve WASH.”
She commended efforts by the ministries and partners to organize the symposium which was the first of its kind.
