Visiting a school in Zambia, Africa, it is easy to see the important role water plays in the daily lives of students. Aside from the bright color of children’s uniforms contrasting with the brown landscape, flashes of yellow are visible all over the courtyard as the students move about. The yellow is not from books or backpacks, but from plastic jugs (jerry cans) that the pupils clutch tightly. These yellow jugs are an intimate part of the school landscape. Since the school has no water on its property, students must take long breaks to fetch water from a well located over one half-mile away.
Many people cannot imagine a school without drinking fountains, flush toilets, or sinks. Unfortunately, lack of water and sanitation is common in most classrooms throughout sub-Saharan Africa and much of the world. Children’s education suffers greatly from a lack of safe water and sanitation on school premises.
Water Collection
Too often students use valuable class time to fetch water long distances from school. Sometimes the paths or roads are dangerous for children, and they have to carry jugs that are far too heavy for their small frames, affecting the development of their spines. Frequently, these schoolchildren are collecting unsafe water from contaminated sources.
Disease & Death
Hundreds of millions of school days each year are missed due to water-related illnesses.7 Unsafe water can lead to severe outbreaks of diarrheal diseases, which include some of the deadliest diseases for children in the developing world. Improper waste disposal and lack of water for proper handwashing perpetuates diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and hepatitis. These outbreaks keep children from attending school and sometimes force school closures, making a good education nearly impossible in some rural areas.
Even when children drinking contaminated water avoid acute illness, they are likely to suffer malnutrition, stunted growth, and impeded intellectual development due to parasites and chronic diarrhea. Summarizing the results of a broad study, The Economist reported, “Places that harbour a lot of parasites and pathogens not only suffer the debilitating effects of disease on their workforces, but also have their human capital eroded, child by child, from birth. There is, moreover, direct evidence that infections and parasites affect cognition. Intestinal worms have been shown to do so on many occasions. Malaria, too, is bad for the brain. A study of children in Kenya who survived the cerebral version of the disease suggests that an eighth of them suffer long-term cognitive damage. . . . it is the various bugs that cause diarrhoea which are the biggest threat. Diarrhoea strikes children hard. It accounts for a sixth of infant deaths, and even in those it does not kill it prevents the absorption of food at a time when the brain is growing and developing rapidly.”
Female Students Suffer the Most
Many girls are unable to attend school because their main responsibility for the family, collecting water, requires hours of walking each day. In many cases, young women who are able to attend primary school drop out when they reach puberty because the school lacks private latrines. Improved latrines, hand-in-hand with adequate access to safe water on and off school premises, can significantly improve attendance at schools, especially for girls. After making provisions for safe water and latrines at two schools, one of Lifewater International's in-country partner organizations in Kenya reported a reduction in girls being pulled from class by their families to fetch water. They also noted a “remarkable increase in female enrollment.”
People all over the world cite lack of education as one of the main obstacles to reducing poverty. Lifewater International understands that in order to improve education, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) needs must be addressed. That is why Lifewater is working to provide schools with safe water, latrines, and hygiene education in countries where it works. By reducing the incidence of disease and providing for students’ WASH needs, schools once again become assets to the community and catalysts for a better future.
