Water supply and education- a girls Problem?
Adeline Schreiner. Access to water and sanitation in schools significantly impacts students´ health and educational success in Sub-Sahara-Africa. Particularly, girls are affected by insufficient sanitation and therefore disadvantaged in their education.
Yayu Preparatory School, Ethiopia, October 2017
The effects of insufficient sanitation on education
The quality of education affects the lives of students and can lead to a better future. But unfortunately, not all children have access to quality schooling. Children and students in Sub-Saharan-Africa face difficulties, influencing their development and decreasing their capability to gain an adequate education. In this context, access to clean water and sanitation is an often underestimated factor for school attendance (Ombati & Ombati, 2012). It significantly influences the number of elementary and secondary school students and graduation rates (Ombati & Ombati, 2012). Climate change is likely to exacerbate this problem, as it has a significant impact on rainy seasons and water availability.
Lacking access to water and poor water quality is related to dehydration and inadequate hygiene, which leads to poor educational achievements and health problems. Estimates show that 94% of diarrheal diseases are due to environmental factors, i.e., contaminated drinking water, poor sanitation, and hygiene (Antwi-Agyei et al., 2017). Fluid regulation in children is not yet fully developed, making dehydration a widespread issue and diminishing cognitive abilities, particularly short-term memory and attention skills (Masento et al., 2014). However, water quality plays an equally important role, as contaminated water often leads to diarrhea and other ailments that prevent children from learning.
In Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia, rural schools with basic sanitation and hygiene services are rare (Morgan et al., 2017). Worldwide, 1863 million missed school days are associated with diarrheal illness and could be avoided with basic sanitation (Byford, 2014). Access to good sanitation, hygiene, and water quality influences student´s education worldwide, especially in developing countries. Therefore, expanding the sanitary infrastructure would improve many students’ health and educational success and contribute to the region’s overall development.
Girls are particularly affected
In Sub-Saharan-Africa, girls accounted for only 34% of all students in secondary school by 2008. Sub-Sahara-Africa’s unequal education for girls and boys has various reasons, e.g., political instability, violence, poverty, cultural aspects, and early marriages. (Ombati & Ombati, 2012)
Providing toilets and access to sanitation in schools increases the number of students in primary schools. This effect, in particular, is more extensive for pubescent girls than for boys. Inadequate or non-separate toilets for girls could unsettle their parents and lead to them not sending their daughters to school (Byford, 2014). Access to sanitation and adequate facilities for menstrual hygiene influences school attendance of girls during their menstrual cycle. Pubescent girls often miss school days or even drop out of education after the onset of menstruation (Byford, 2014). That means many girls never visit a secondary school or miss up to 65 days of school every year after primary school, which leads to a decrease in the quality of their education. Therefore, the provision of sanitation is essential to minimize the educational gender differences.
Educational disparities due to biological sex differences are unacceptable and lead to disadvantage and discrimination against girls. The construction of sanitation facilities would clearly benefit all children’s education, especially girls, significantly reducing educational disparities.
What could be done?
How can we change this unsatisfactory situation and implement better sanitation in rural Sub-Sahara-Africa? It´s essential to build new schools and rebuild and renew the existing ones, thus improving rural Africa’s educational infrastructure.
The UNESCO Green Academies Project encourages young people and their communities to transform their existing buildings, e.g., schools, into environmentally friendly and climate-resilient structures and help them do so with simple, affordable, and replicable methods. Students and teachers will be responsible for the facilities. Their schools will be more sustainable and prepared for climate change based on the four pillars of the project: water conservation, clean energy, biomass production, and waste management. To improve the school’s water supply, rainwater is collected from the roofs, stored in large tanks, and pumped to the point of use by hand pumps, gravity, and valves. The collected water can be used for basic hygiene and irrigation. There is also the possibility of obtaining drinking water through filtration.
This topic is particularly complex and addresses many SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals): Goal 3, Good health and well-being, Goal 4, Quality education, Goal 5, Gender Equality, and Goal 6, Clean water and sanitation, are goals that we can achieve by improving the water supply in schools. Overall, the construction of sanitation facilities holds many opportunities and can make a major contribution to the achievement of the SDGs and, in particular, promote the schooling of girls and thus reduce the educational gender gap.
Bibliography
Antwi-Agyei, P., Mwakitalima, A., Seleman, A., Tenu, F., Kuiwite, T., Kiberiti, S., & Roma, E. (2017). Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in schools: Results from a process evaluation of the national sanitation campaign in Tanzania. Journal of Water Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 7(1), 140–150. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2017.159
Byford, T. (2014). Water, sanitation and hygiene standards for schools in low-cost settings. International Journal of Environmental Studies, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207233.2014.913878
Masento, N. A., Golightly, M., Field, D. T., Butler, L. T., & Van Reekum, C. M. (2014). Effects of hydration status on cognitive performance and mood. British Journal of Nutrition, 111(10), 1841–1852. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114513004455
Morgan, C., Bowling, M., Bartram, J., & Lyn Kayser, G. (2017). Water, sanitation, and hygiene in schools: Status and implications of low coverage in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 220(6), 950–959. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.03.015
Ombati, V., & Ombati, M. (2012). Gender Inequality in Education in subSaharan Africa. Journal of Women’s Entrepreneurship and Education, 3–4, 114–136.
