A Non-Governmental organisation,(NGO); “Hope Voice Suisse Association” said, it has concluded every necessary arrangement to provide drinkable water in some schools in Epe local government area of Lagos state to compliment the efforts of the state government.
The project manager, Mr Oyewole Michael who made this known in a statement, stated that, the move was essential to prevent outbreak of diseases that could be contacted by students through poor drinking water.
“The need for prompt execution of the project is to avoid outbreak of waterborne diseases among pupils in the affected local government area”.
” We will ensure that, school pupils at the elementary level have the basic knowledge of water sanitation and discourage pupils trekking long distances in fetching water either form their homes, streams and brooks.”
According to him, “only forty seven (47) out of seventy four (74) schools in the local government have water supply in their schools while the remaining twenty seven (27) schools rely on unhygienic sources to scoop water to meet their demand for portable water.”
He added that, “Children fetch water from home to school in semi urban and urban schools while children in riverine schools fetch water from the stream and brooks for use in school,are having negative impact in their learning as a result of children (Fatigue) and waste of precious learning time. Pupils punctuality and regularity in schools is also negatively affected”.
While noting that,rural area and semi-urban schools, pupils make use of pit lavatory without running water, Mr. Oyewole, remarked that, it is unfortunate that,some have to trek long distances to fetch water from stream/brook in rural schools.
“Consequent upon the non-availability of portable water supply in these aforementioned twenty seven (27) public primary schools, the HOPEVOICE SUISSE (NGO) plan to solicit for funding to mitigate the water challenge in these schools to compliment the efforts of Lagos state government in meeting the minimum standard required of inclusive schools.
The project Coordinator however disclosed that, “these twenty seven (27) schools need water intervention cuts across the length and breath of the LGEA and gave their names as, Riverine schools, Schools that are located across the Lagos lagoon, accessible by boat as means of transportation, Rural schools located in upland but in the rural interior, accessible by road and Upland located in semi urban area accessible by road.
“Our vision is to restore hope and belief in the people of Africa and subsequently see more citizens thinking more selflessly for better continents”.
” We also aim to mitigate against the danger inherent in none availability of portable water in some schools in the local government and we will be more committed to source fund to facilitate the life given commodity where not available, ” he submitted.
