However, it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education to provide and expand water and sanitation facilities and build infrastructure in schools. One of the principles in water and sanitation policy stipulates that the state has a duty to guarantee service delivery within available resources.
Introduction
- Introduction
- Motivation of the study
- Statement of the problem
- Aims and objectives of the study
- Conceptual framework
- Methodology and core findings
- Organization of the dissertation
To assess the institutional and regulatory environment for the provision of water and sanitation infrastructure in Ndwedwe schools. How health and hygiene education and practices are incorporated into water and sanitation infrastructure development.
Literature review
- Introduction
- Overview of the South African water sector
- Service delivery in rural areas
- Water and sanitation service delivery at schools
- Institutional arrangements for water and sanitation provision
- Types of partnerships
At national level, the ministries seem to encourage partnerships between municipalities and the private sector with the one-sided aim of facilitating the municipalities' delivery of services. Therefore, partnerships have been initiated in South Africa to curb challenges in the water sector and to complement skills shortages in services.
Theoretical Framework
- Introduction
- Water and sanitation provision as a basic need
- Basic needs and rights based approaches to water and sanitation services
- Water, sanitation and public health
This chapter has shown that water and sanitation are fundamental to improving the living standards of people. Therefore, the provision of water and sanitation is seen as a human rights factor, the inadequacy of which is considered a violation of human dignity and equality.
Methodology
- Introduction
- Description of the site and population
- Research methodology and design
- Qualitative methods
- In-depth interviews
- Sampling methods
- Analysis of interviews
- Limitations of the study
The main objective of the study is to develop a detailed description of the state of water supply and sanitation in the selected schools. In-depth interviews were used with school leaders to gain a detailed understanding of the Ministry of Education's financial situation and the implications this has on service delivery. Moore (1997) noted that the essential factor in research is the ability to choose a method that is likely to meet the research objectives.
The publication of the questionnaire does not give the respondent the opportunity to ask for clarity in the absence of the interviewer (ibid.). Respondents may have understood that the purpose of the research was to contribute to the policy of provision of water and sanitation services in rural schools with the aim of promoting policy change. At the research sites, observations and photographs were made showing the condition of the sanitary facilities.
Given the sampling procedures and small sample size, the study does not claim to be representative of the entire rural school population.
Presentation of results and findings
Profiling and demographics of the study area
- The physical environment
School enrollment information helps calculate the pupil-to-toilet ratio (PTR), which links student statistics and the gender distribution of toilets. It was found that the number of toilets available to students in all schools compares favorably with national and international standards. The registrations show that there are more boys than girls in three of the six schools and that most schools have an equal number of toilets for both boys and girls.
The Ministry of Education has its own standards for the acceptable toilet ratio (PTR) of students that indicate the level of access to toilet facilities. The PTR across schools in the study area differed significantly, with the highest ratios being 43:1 and 45:1 for girls and boys, respectively. 50% of schools have an equal number of toilets available for both boys and girls, making the average ratio of toilets to students 45:1 for boys and 43:1 for girls.
In the case of Nairobi, the national standard is set by the Ministry of Education for the pupil: toilet ratio of 25:1 and 30:1 for girls and boys respectively, which is reasonable compared to South African standards (Ngware, Oketch & . Ezeh 2008).
Sanitation facilities
- The state of sanitation facilities
- Sanitation facilities maintenance
This section will discuss the state of sanitation facilities in the research schools and whether a school has new toilet facilities as well as the implementation agent for new facilities. The state of sanitation facilities is presented in Table 2 which indicates that 50% of the schools have no new toilets; they rely on self-built sanitation facilities. The schools with newer facilities had their toilets built by Umgeni Water, an independent contractor funded by Ithala Bank and Public Works on behalf of the Department of Education.
Those schools that do not have recently constructed toilets have old buildings built by the community or the school and have not received them. However, during school visits, it was found that the toilets were actually not as clean as described. The observed state of the sanitary facilities, both old and new, did not confirm the perceived state of cleanliness as described by the respondents.
Some urinal systems leaked and the urine covered the floor to the extent that the paint on the cement floor eroded, as shown in Figure 5.
Water infrastructure
- Source of water and other related issues
One school has neither a reliable nor an alternative water source and children have to bring water from home or use a nearby river and spring as an alternative source. Water shortages are common in the schools during the winter months with the exception of one school that does not experience water shortages: they have three taps with constant running water as well as six tanks.
Public health and personal hygiene
- Waterborne diseases
The latter is attributed to the fact that "girls seem to use handwashing facilities more than boys" (interviewee. In school 2 the handwashing facilities are broken and unused, but there is no alternative source of washing hand basins available for students.School 5 has a hand washing basin in the boys' toilets, but none in the girls' toilets, but there is a basin built outside for use by students.
The above statement nicely summarizes the adverse effects of the lack of safe drinking water on people's well-being. In addition, the prevention of waterborne diseases transmitted by contaminated water is also critical to human health. Since most schools have tanks, they expressed uncertainty about the water quality, as the frequency of cleaning the inside of the tank takes place once a year in three schools, while the rest did not know that the tanks needed to be rinsed and cleaned.
About 66% of the schools reported having children with symptoms of diarrhoea, which can be linked to waterborne diseases.
Institutional arrangements, partnerships and service delivery
- Service delivery
- Partnership involvement and service delivery experience
In the case of this study, the relevance of the livelihood approach is considered essential in defining the scope of service delivery as far as infrastructure maintenance and operation is concerned. Partnerships identified to play a role in service delivery in some schools were through Public Works, Umgeni Water and Ithala Bank. One of the respondents indicated that service delivery in the rural areas would be significantly improved if service providers were more accessible and visible to the people: "They [stakeholders] will speed up the process and quality standards will be good".
Another type of partner that was identified as being crucial to service delivery was community-based organizations (CBOs). Some respondents were of the opinion that the provision of services in rural areas is not of the same standard as in urban areas (surveyed by school 3). There are improvements in the provision of sanitation services while water services seem to be lacking.
Service provision must be consistent in addressing the needs of a particular area to avoid imbalances.
Discussion
Water and sanitation facilities, public health and gender issues
On the one hand, children misuse water and are not aware of water conservation, on the other hand, hand washing facilities are often not in good condition for long-term use. Snel (2003:12) suggests that the availability and conditions of physical facilities are one dimension of water and sanitation provision. Another important dimension of sustainable water and sanitation is the availability of handwashing facilities that would contribute to better hygiene, especially in schools.
Hygiene is a factor that connects water and sanitation, and is conveyed to students through targeted health and hygiene education programs. Water and sanitation provision is seen as a way to improve people's livelihoods with a positive effect on their quality of life. Similarly, proper hygienic behavior means that school children must constantly practice good toilet habits and proper hand washing with soap and water after using the toilet and before handling food.
It was observed that in the study area, parents and communities have minimal influence on water and sanitation decision-making in schools.
Institutional arrangements and partnership as determinants to level of service
South Africa appears to be following suit and in KwaZulu-Natal, Umgeni Water, as a public water company, is becoming a preferred partner of the Ministry of Water Affairs in implementing water and sanitation programs in schools. In this study, institutions involved in water and sanitation programs were parastatal: Umgeni Water acted as executive agent on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Ithala Bank financed both public works and education projects. However, some schools do not directly address the Executive Agents (IA) as the selection appears to be dependent on a tender process by the DoE to choose an agent to build toilets.
While the process of constructing toilets is being carried out by the Ministry of Public Works and selected IAs, no department seems to be at the forefront of water supply. Communities must also realize that it is their responsibility to lobby for adequate provision of government services (Evans 2004: 6). The role of the private sector depends on the social responsibility policy of the individual company.
Also improving the quality of education by encouraging public-private partnership initiatives and that such should be supported by the government.
Conclusion
Finally, education stakeholders need to adopt a sectoral approach to address issues that go beyond education in schools, such as supporting the provision of school toilets and safe drinking water, electricity, etc. The institutional framework and political climate must support and encourage proper service.
Conclusion and recommendations
The water facilities remained the responsibility of the school, as the water in the tanks installed with the toilets is also used only for washing hands. Schools must also be aware of the water supply chain, which includes the cooperation of the municipality. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: Basic Education and Hygiene, Downloaded on 19 August 2009 from www.unicef.org New York.
Downloaded January 5, 2009 from http://www.wateraid.org/international/what_we_do/sustainable_technologies/technology notes/2064.asp. WUP (2007) The Water Utility Partnership for Capacity Building in Africa: Water Sector Reform. If you would like to receive a copy of the investigation report, please enter your address.
How would you rate the involvement of the following sectors in infrastructure development in the schools?
