Status of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Facilities in Public Secondary Schools in Yenagoa, Nigeria

Odafivwotu Ohwo^1,

¹Department of Geography and Environmental Management, Faculty of Social Sciences, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Cite this paper:
Odafivwotu Ohwo. Status of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Facilities in Public Secondary Schools in Yenagoa, Nigeria. World Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities. 2019; 5(3):176-183. doi: 10.12691/wjssh-5-3-7

Abstract

Adequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services have positive implications on students learning outcomes. Hence, this study assessed the status of WASH services in public secondary schools in Yenagoa. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey design, which involved direct field observation of WASH facilities and the administration of structured questionnaire to the entire 16 public secondary schools in Yenagoa. However, the analysis involved 15 schools, as one of the schools did not return its questionnaire. Data obtained was analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) classification of WASH services in schools. The results show that WASH services in most of the schools are inadequate and unsatisfactory. Hygiene service was the worst provided WASH services in the schools as only two (13.33%) schools had basic hygiene service, one (6.67%) school had limited hygiene service and 12 (80%) schools had no service. Next was water service where three (20%) schools had basic drinking water service, another three (20%) schools had limited drinking water service and nine (60%) schools had no water service. Although sanitation had the best WASH coverage in the schools, basic sanitation service was only obtainable in seven (46.67%) schools, limited sanitation service in five (33.33%) schools and no service in three (20%) schools. Also, the toilet to students’ ratio ranges from 1:27 to 1:760, which were higher than the WHO recommended average of 1:25 for girls and 1:50 for boys. The study recommends the prioritization of the provision of WASH services in schools.

Keywords:
hygiene public sanitation secondary school water Yenagoa

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References:

[1]	UNICEF and WHO (2015) 25Years Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update and MDG Assessment [Online]files.unicef.org/…/Progress_on_Sanitation_and_Drinking_Water_2015_Update_pdf [Accessed August 27, 2016].
[2]	WHO Regional Office for Europe and United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. (2016). The Situation of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools in the Pan-European Region [Online] http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/322454/Situation-water-sanitation-hygiene-schools.pdf [Assessed, August 24, 2019].
[3]	UNICEF (2012) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools, A Companion to the Child Friendly Schools Manual, https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/CFS_WASH_E_web.pdf.
[4]	Dillingham, R and Guerrant, R. L (2004) Childhood Stunting: Measuring and Stemming the Staggering Costs of Inadequate Water and Sanitation, The Lancet, No. 9403, pp. 94–95.
[5]	Prüss-Üstün A, Bos R, Gore F and Bartram J (2008) Safer Water, Better Health: Costs, Benefits and Sustainability of Interventions to Protect and Promote Health, World Health Organization, Geneva.
[6]	Talaat, and Maha. (2011). Effects of Hand Hygiene Campaigns on Incidence of Laboratory-Confirmed Influenza and Absenteeism in Schoolchildren, Cairo, Egypt, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Vol. 17, No. 4 [Online] <http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/17/4/10-1353_article.htm>, [Accessed: May10, 2018].
[7]	Lopez-Quintero, C, Freeman P and Neumark, Y. (2009). Hand washing among School Children in Bogota, Colombia, American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 99, No. 1: 94-101.
[8]	Bowen, A, Ma, H, Ou, J, Billhimer, W, Long, T, Mintz, E, Hoekstra, R.M and Luby, S. (2007). A Cluster-randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Effect of a Hand-Washing-Promotion Programme in Chinese Primary Schools, The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Vol. 76, No. 6: pp. 1166-1173.
[9]	Waddington, H, Snilstveit, B, White, H and Fewtrell, L. (2009). Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Interventions to Combat Childhood Diarrhoea in Developing Countries, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3IE), Synthetic Review, Vol. 001.
[10]	Egbinola, C.N. and Amanambu, A.C. (2015). Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Education in Secondary Schools in Ibadan, Nigeria, In: Szymańska, D. and Środa-Murawska, S. Editors, Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, No. 29, Toruń: Nicolaus Copernicus University, pp. 31-46.
[11]	IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (2007) Towards Effective Programming for WASH in Schools: A Manual on Scaling up Programmes for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools’, TP Series, No. 48, IRC, Delft, the Netherlands.
[12]	Baird, S, Hicks, J. H, Kremer, M, Miguel, E (2011) Worms at Work: Long-run Impacts of Child Health Gains, [Online] <www.povertyactionlab.org/publication/wormswork-long-run-impacts-child-health-gains>, [Accessed: August 5, 2018].
[13]	Miguel, M and Kremer, M (2004) Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities, Econometrica, Vol. 72, No. 1: pp. 159-217.
[14]	UNICEF and WHO (2018) Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools: Global Baseline Report 2018, New York, Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
[15]	UNICEF and IRC (2005) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education for Schools, In: Roundtable Proceedings and Framework for Action, [Online] Available at: http://esa.un.org/iys/docs/san_lib_docs/SSHE_OxfordRoundTable.pdf [Accessed: May 5, 2018].
[16]	WHO (2009) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Standards for Schools in Low-cost Settings, Edited by Adams, J, Bartram, J, Chartier, Y and Sims, J [Online] https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/wash_standards_sch ool.pdf [Accessed, August 23, 2019].
[17]	Lidonde, R. (2004). Scaling up School Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion and Gender Concerns, In: School Sanitation and Hygiene Education Symposium, The Way Forward: Construction is not Enough! In: Proceedings of School Sanitation and Hygiene Education Symposium, the Netherlands, Delft: WEDC, GWA, [Online] http://www.irc.nl/page/13136, [Accessed: August 3, 2018].
[18]	Morgan C, Bowling M, Bartram J and Kayser L. G (2017) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools: Status and Implications of Low Coverage in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia, Int. J Hyg Environ Health, 220(6): 950-959.
[19]	Jordanova T, Cronk R, Obando W, Medina O. Z, Kinoshita R and Bartram J (2015) Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Schools in Low Socio-Economic Regions in Nicaragua: A Cross-Sectional Survey, Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 12: 6197-6217.
[20]	Ohwo, O (2014) Housing Quality in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria, Nigerian Geographical Journal, New Series, Vol. 10 No. 1: 53-67.
[21]	Koinyan, A. A., Nwankwoala, H. O. and Eludoyin, O. S. (2013) Water Resources Utilization in Yenagoa, Central Niger Delta: Environmental and Health Implications, International Journal of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering Vol.5 (4): 177-186.
[22]	Krejcie, R. V and Morgan, D. W. (1970) Determining Sample Size for Research Activities, Educ. Psychol. Measure, 30, 607-610.
[23]	Ohwo, O. (2018). Impact of Storage on the Quality of Sachet Water Produced in Amassoma, Nigeria, Civil and Environmental Research, Vol. 10 No. 5, pp 108-115.
[24]	Olukanni, D.O. (2013). Assessment of Wash Program in Public Secondary Schools in South-Western Nigeria, ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Vol. 8, No. 3: 222-228.
[25]	Kotingo E. L, Ayerite A. L. and Chukwuma C. B. (2014). Evaluation of the Toilet Facilities in Primary Schools in the Niger Delta: WASH Education Series 2, International Journal of Innovative Research and Development, Vol.3 Issue 9: 91-100.
[26]	Tiswin, T. N., Luguterah, A. and Aladago, A. D (2019) Assessing the Types, Condition and Functionality of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Facilities in Public Primary Schools in the Zabzugu District of Ghana, UDS International Journal of Development, Vol.6 No 1: 92-101.