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Umuariaga Community Primary School is a public school in Ikwuano Local government Area in Abia State, Nigeria. Accessibility to good toilet facilities is a major problem confronting the pupils and the teachers. This has lead to spread of diseases such as diarrhea and resulted in the death of many children.
The Rotary Club of Umudike Central with great understanding of the global need for clean water and improved sanitation, being one of Rotary's six areas of focus, discussed and interacted with the pupils, teachers and the community and they lamented about the lack of toilet and portable water in the school. We believe that for any education, social and economic development to be impacted on the pupils, adequate sanitation in conjunction with good hygiene and safe water are essential to their good health. Lack of proper sanitation causes diseases and most of the diseases resulting from sanitation have a direct relation to poverty. The lack of clean water and poor sanitation has caused many diseases and the spread of diseases among the teachers and the pupils. This poor sanitation accounts is also causing underweight since it has a direct link to diarrhea. Children suffering for diarrhea are more vulnerable to become underweight Sanitation is a serious issue that is affecting the pupils and the teachers in the school.
The Club consider provision of toilet and clean portable water very important in other to keep the teachers and the pupils in good health. One of the most significant diseases that arise among the pupils is diarrhea. We understand it has caused lots of deaths in the school. The school's lack access to clean portable drinking water which has also exposed the children and teachers to communicable diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever. In addition, from the interviews and discussions with members school communities, we discovered that there has been a recent increase in the incidence of water borne diseases in the school, some have resulted to deaths. This we attribute to poor sanitation due to lack of toilet facilities as the streams that serves these communities also serve as their laundry spots, watering places for their animals and bathing spots. Rotary Club of Umudike Central strongly believe that provision of toilet and clean portable drinking water will give the children more time for their studies and also provide improved sanitation and health status for the pupils and members of the community.
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