All city schools to be connected with running water
City centre.
All public schools will be given running water, Governor Evans Kidero has said.
This comes at a time when some public schools have become dumping sites or effluent zones, while many more lack running water — endangering the health of pupils.
Some of those affected are Roysambu, Muthurwa and Mathari primary schools.
At Roysambu, sewage from neighbouring Zimmerman and Roysambu estates runs freely into the school compound, covering most of the playground.
Pupils play and eat near the marsh, oblivious of the danger of drowning or contracting diseases such as typhoid, bilharzia and diarrhoea.
In a similar situation is Muthurwa Primary School, where a private developer built a wall that blocked the flow of sewage diverting it to pass through the school compound.
Mathari Primary School, on the other hand, has become the new dumpsite for the neighbouring community, while Tom Mboya Primary School is surrounded by the Dandora dumpsite.
County Education Taskforce chairman Dr Mark Matunga said: “These are urgent issues that need to be handled promptly.”
He said this during the launch of a report detailing the state of public primary schools in the county.
This has often interfered with the state of education in the schools with reports of children suffering from preventable diseases due to the filthy conditions.
“Some schools have old and dilapidated sewage infrastructure which at times block and cause open sewers to run through the schools,” read the taskforce report.
Some of the schools have few toilets which have inadequate water supply while in others, such as Mihang’o Primary School, in Embakasi, have pit latrines.
The taskforce recommended that the Government establishes hygienic flush toilets in the as well as provide exhaust services to drain filled up septic tanks and pit latrines.