By Marion Ajwang
Nebbi District has launched the construction of Ush3.05b WASH project to improve sanitary facilities in the four identified primary schools and promote girls’ retention in schools.
The project being funded by the European Commission Union through KfW in collaboration with the Ugandan Government under the Ministry of Water and Environment -Water and Sanitation Development Facility-North is themed “Climate Resilience and Water Infrastructure for Refugee and Host Communities in Northern Uganda”.
The four schools to benefit from this first slot are Erussi in Erussi Sub County, Alwala in Angal-Nyaravur Town Council, Oryang and Angal Boys Primary Schools.
The Nine month project shall have 9 blocks of 57 stances of VIP latrines for both teachers and pupils, construction of 5 classroom blocks, renovations of 3 classroom blocks, and construction of 6-unit staff houses.
Eng Denis Happy Javuru, the Contract Manager who works at the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) in the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Department (WASH) said that latrines shall be constructed with the incinerator especially for girls.
Javuru said that there is much a strong need to protect the environment, a reason they received the certification from the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) before the projects could start.
“All the VIP latrines especially for girls are incorporated with incinerator and wash room for the girl child, the donor is very interested in environmental and social safeguards of our schools and in that regard, before we could go ahead, we had to get a certification from NEMA for each school,” Javuru said
He called upon different stakeholders involved in the project to cooperate saying they will be carrying out regular consultation to ensure it is successful.
“As contract manager and my team, we are going to be committed to consult every now and then, we expect maximum cooperation from all the stakeholders, and all the stakeholders involved in this project to make sure the implementation of this project is successful and satisfactory to the Local Government, schools and the Donor,” he said.
According to Eng Felix Okwir, the Assistant Branch Manager of Water and Sanitation Development Facility-North, a total of 199 schools in Northern Uganda are going to benefit from similar the project.
Okwir also confirmed the source of the funding saying it is money coming from someone’s paid tax that needs to be fully implemented as well as put to proper use within us.
“This project is happening in 199 schools now, and it is funded by the KfW, the government of Germany, a donation from somebody’s tax payers’ money, we need to implement it and let it remain with us here and it is money that you are not paying back,” Okwir confirmed
Okwir called upon the school heads to encourage girl children to stay in school saying the project funder wants to see that many girls continue with their studies with a lot of ease.
“We expect the head teachers, the senior women teachers to at least encourage these girls to be at school and learn because the Government of Germany is trying to promote the gender of development in Uganda, they want to see that the girl child are always at school, so we are doing this to promote the girl child education in this school,” Okwir called upon
He added that many young girls in the rural setting drop out of school because of the menstrual challenges they experience saying it is a reason only most boy children further their education especially in the primary levels.
“If you see the statistics, most of the studied people are mostly the men, reason being the girls got a lot of challenge when they come to school and mostly when they are in their menstruation,” he added.
He cautioned both the contractor and the school heads to avoid interruptions of learners during learning hours, saying security should also be provided to the contractor during his time of operations.
“There should be zero interruption of learners during their learning time, we don’t want you to produce noise during learning hours. If there is anything that will create noise, rather to be done over the weekend or later hours, protect the girls right from the contractor and also provide security of the contractor, don’t allow any outsider to come and disturb the contractor during his work,” he cautioned.
Muluta Mugaga, the Chief Administrative Officer, expressed that the WASH project is a great achievement for the district, saying learning conditions have been one of the challenges affecting the learners’ performances and completion rates.
“This is a very big achievement which must not be taken for granted, of course one of the issues which is preventing our children from performing well are the learning conditions, even the sanitary facilities, that our girls when they come to menstruation every month, some of them drop out of school, so you should take this seriously, it’s a good way forward,” Mugaga expressed
Mugaga said that the new buildings that shall be instituted in the schools should bring new developments also to the learners in terms of performances as well as enrollment.
“After getting this facility, you should have a higher enrollment in these particular schools, we should even expect more girls as we talking to the parents to bring their children to school, completion rates should improve, so it’s going to be a shame if they come to assess us after five years and find when we are not performing,” he added.
Innocent Openytho, the district Education officer said schools are over stressed with limited sanitary facilities especially for girls.
“I want to thank Ministry of Water and Environment for giving us this support in regards to WASH, we are over stressed with the sanitary facility but the coming of WASH is going to help us a great deal, the biggest challenge we are having is the sanitation for girls, remember if they are supposed to go for short calls, they should go to latrines unlike boys where 10 of them can line up and can urinate but for girls, it can require for a latrine at a time,” Openytho said
Openytho expressed that the pupil stance ration in the schools is beyond the recommended standard ratio of 1 to 40 saying it exposes the learners to health risks
“The population is growing but the number of sanitary facilities has remained limited, the pupil stance ratio is close to 1-100 which surpasses the normal rate of 1to 40, so by this standard, we are automatically knocked out, and this exposes a lot of challenges,” Openytho
Meanwhile Bosco Okello Odongo, the Technical Director of Bygon Enterprise promised to deliver the works in time stipulated, saying they have been carrying a number of construction projects in other sub regions successfully.