Assessment of the impacts of water, sanitation and hygiene programs in primary schools: a case of Temeke district in Dar es Salaam region, Tanzania

Abstract

The Objective of this study was to assess the impact of sanitation and hygiene programs towards safe and healthy environment to pupils in primary schools in Temeke District Dar es Salaam. The driving force behind the sWASH initiative is the recognition that half of the world’s schools lack safe water and even more cannot provide a sanitary latrine which limit overall student attendance, performance by fostering unhealthy environments and high levels of infectious diseases. Data used in this study were obtained from journals, articles and reports, website- based statistics, and fact sheets. The study also used checklist for key-informants, focus group discussions and questionnaires. Also, secondary data were obtained from the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and NGO’s like WaterAid Tanzania, UNICEF just to mention a few. The study selected five primary schools in Temeke district. The sWASH programs have brought significant changes like construction of modem toilets and waste collection point, provision of clean and safe water, water tanks, hand wash facilities, dustbins, sanitary pads collection and provision of sanitation and Hygiene education that increased pupils’ performance, attendance due to health and safe environment in school. The challenges of sWASH were on the operation and maintenance of sanitation and hygiene facilities. Also the sustainability of sWASH program is questionable since it depends on the donor or project. The study comes with holistic integrated institution set up which will provide power to community and school administration from the stage of planning, management, operation and maintenance that will create sustainability of the sWASH programmes in primary schools. The study reveals that before sWASH programs, pupils were at high risk of being affected by pathogens and sanitation related diseases like diarrhea, cholera, intestinal worms, urinary tract infections, eye infection and skin infection due to open defecation, drinking untreated waters, not wash hands after visiting toilets and before eating, flies from dirty and broken toilets.