Poor sanitation at Shangombo school worries government

Shangombo Basic School Acting Head teacher, Simutwe Katazwe, has asked government to quickly work on the sanitation   at the learning institution before a water borne disease breaks out.
Mrs Katazwe told ZANIS yesterday when Deputy Minister of Health, Christopher Mulenga visited the school to check on health conditions at the school that Shangombo Basic School has been operating with only two staff toilets and four latrines against over 1,200 pupils.

 

Mrs Katazwe added that the school has only one borehole which teachers and pupils share.
She said the other borehole, which was sunk last year, was discovered to be contaminated and not fit for human use.
The Acting Head teacher said life at the school has been hard as everyone lives under fears of getting sick at anytime.
Mrs Katazwe has since asked government to consider providing piped water at the school and feared that that soon water borne diseases are likely to break out.
Meanwhile Deputy Minister of Health, Christopher Mulenga, wondered why the Ministry of Health in the district has not worked on the problem.
Mr Mulenga wondered why health workers in the district have not prioritized the school sanitation, adding that most of their children were going to the same school.
He said it is because of such recklessness that the Ministry of Health is inundated with a lot of patients suffering from preventable diseases as a result of such bad sanitary conditions.
He said the school risks facing closure if health inspectors visited it.
Mr Mulenga has since instructed the department of health in the district to find means through which the situation can be controlled.
The minister, who inspected the over-used latrines, said it was wrong for parents and teachers to allow children to use such toilets.