The State of Water Supply and Sanitation in Government Primary Schools in Dares Salaam Region a Case of Kinondoni Municipality

Abstract

This paper sets out to assess the state of water supply and sanitation in government primary schools in Kinondoni Municipality. It based on data collected in 2013. A cross-sectional study design was adopted, collecting data through the use of questionnaire, in-depth interviews and observation from ten public primary schools in the study area. Statistical Package for social science (SPSS) was used to clean and analyse the data collected. The study found out that there is inadequate and unreliable water supply, water storage facilities and shortage of functioning hand-washing facilities. The available sanitation facilities are poorly utilized due to various reasons including pupils' background personal hygiene, sanitation technology, pupils' population, lack of hygiene education and school weakness in implementing School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (SWASH) guideline. The study concludes that although the government primary schools in Kinondoni Municipality own a variety of water sources and sanitation facilities, generally there is inadequate coverage of water and sanitation facilities in primary schools. Also the SWASH guidelines did not specify who is to be responsible for the maintenance costs, awareness creation to teachers, parents, and pupils as well cultural aspect on the use of SWASH facilities were not considered. To increase water reliability at schools, multiple sources (water tape and deep wells) could be the best solution. Parents and pupils should be involved in SWASH program awareness and consider economic (maintenance costs) and cultural appropriateness, also to avoid punishing pupils by using toilet cleaning at schools.