WASH in Schools: Ansar ud Deen Comprehensive Colledge, Idi-iroko road Ota

WASH field report

By Dr Babatope Babalobi and Racheal Ogundipe

A team from eWASH visited Ansar Ud Deen comprehensive college, in Ota Ogun State, on March 14, 2023, to assess the status of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) facilities. eWASH held a meeting with the current principal of the school, Alahaja Godwin, and she briefed the team on the current challenges of the school regarding WASH.

The Principal mentioned that the school is populated with a lot of students but has very few toilets to meet the needs of these students. she added that most of the time, the school spends money to repair these toilets based on mismanagement by the students.  She also mentioned that students prefer to make use of the toilet that is closer to their classroom than the one that is far so they are given free access to these toilets.

The team also inspected and observed the current WASH situation in the school. This includes their access to water, toilets, hand washing facilities, and menstrual hygiene facilities as well as proper disposal of waste in the environment.

We made use of an observational checklist and some of the things that we set out to observe are:

1. The sources of drinking water in the school.
2. History and causes of waterborne illnesses such as diarrhea or cholera
3. Availability of gender-sensitive toilets in the school
4. Students toilet usage
5. Availability of water in the toilets as well as cleanliness and those responsible for it.
6. Presence of handwashing facilities in the toilet such as Soap and Water.
7. Attention to privacy for proper menstrual hygiene facilities and materials such as water, access to sanitary pads, waste bins, private space, etc.
8. Water, sanitation, and hygiene challenges as a student

Our findings are summarised below

• The source of water in the school is a borehole, which is usually filtered every term by an NGO called “Impact Water”
• They have 3 water points, two are close to the toilet and one is for drinking. We observed that water is only running from the drinking water point
• The drinking water facility is far from the toilet facilities
• The school has 20 pour flush toilet cubicles for students (10 for females and 10 for males) and 2 water closets for teachers (one each)
• Of the 10 cubicles per gender, 6 were built close to the school field (one toilet cubicle per class) and is usually locked by the class captain. Students who need access get the key from the captain and return it after use. They were found to be well maintained.
• One of the septic tanks in the toilet by the field in these areas appears to have been damaged
• The bushes around the toilet were high, exposing the students to snake bites
• The remaining 4 toilets are closer to the classroom and are usually left open so students can have free access. These toilets on the other hand were found to be very dirty. They were left unflushed and students even urinate on the floor in the toilets.
• In both toilet locations, there were no waste bins to dispose of used tissue paper or sanitary pads, no running water, and no soap.
• The students practise open dumping close to the toilet facilities
• They have to fetch water from a distance before they can make use of the toilet
• They have pipes to run water into the toilet but they do not have tanks for water storage as they said it broke last year
• Students still practise open defecation despite the provision of toilet facilities

 

    

Recommendations

• Education, training, and awareness need to be done for the teachers and the students on behavioral change and proper ways to manage the toilet
• The cleanliness of the toilet should be assigned to students that can be held responsible and should also be used as punishment for offenders
• Sustainable ways of providing soap in the toilets should be developed