UNICEF, Iceland commission water facility in Northern Uganda
Hilda Engilbertsdóttir, Head of Mission at the Embassy of Iceland, alongside members of the UNICEF team and Terego District officials, commissioned the WASH facility at Aria Primary School and Tuku Health Centre II in Terego, a relatively remote district
Terego District was carved out of the neighboring district of Arua in 2020 and is only 20 kilometers away. According to the National Population and Housing Census 2014, it is home to an estimated 168,000 refugees, mostly from South Sudan and to a host population of about 199,303. Despite its proximity to Arua City, Terego District lags behind in terms of access to clean water and other infrastructural amenities by a wide margin.
The residents of Aria Village, where Aria Primary School is located, and its surroundings use water from boreholes, which are in far-flung areas, a distance away from where most reside. The children attending this government-aided Catholic school make an attempt to look as tidy as possible, but there are telltale signs, like their worn-out bootleg sandals, that they've had to trek quite far first to access water and then to school to get an education.
Agatha Katusiime, a Catholic nun and teacher at the school, reckons that the average distance from a pupil's home to the nearest borehole would be at least 2 kilometres. And that's not all; the queues at these water sources are long, with many in the community fetching multiple 20-liter jerry cans of water for home use throughout the day.
"One borehole normally serves up to 500 households in the village, and there is always a long line; by the time one fetches water, it's almost midday. These pupils of ours are forced to come to school late and miss out on lessons," she says. "They may also come to school without bathing, which can be an inconvenience to their fellow pupils and can cause feelings of embarrassment, especially for the older girls. Most pupils give up school altogether due to these frustrations," Katusiime adds.
Offering lasting solutions to long standing challenges
These are some of the challenges that UNICEF, with funding from the Government of Iceland, sought to solve in a bid to fulfill one of its key tenets, which emphasizes the right of every child to an education, as spelled out in the UNICEF education strategy "Every Child Learns." In support of this vision, the strategy adopts equitable access to learning opportunities; improved learning and skills for all; and improved learning and protection for children in emergency and fragile contexts.
According to Mary Namwebe, a UNICEF WASH specialist, "UNICEF and the Government of Iceland entered a partnership to support the Government of Uganda to implement a three-year WASH in institutions intervention in the West Nile region from February 2023 to December 2025, targeting 30 schools and 6 health care facilities, expected to benefit approximately 45,000 people."
The project package at Aria Primary School included hygiene facilities constructed in the school with a provision of girls' latrines, Mass Hand Washing Facilities (MHWF), a mini-solar-powered water system, an incinerator, a community tap, and a school tap, while those at Tuku Health Centre II included female and male latrines, a bath shelter, an incinerator, a placenta pit, a clothesline, and a mini-solar-powered water system with connections at the service points.
Helping pupils realize their full potential
Aria Primary School, remote as it is, has produced some of the brightest brains in the west Nile sub region, which demonstrates that WASH interventions such as the ones that UNICEF implements, alongside the Government of Iceland, will actually go a long way in combating hygiene-related challenges and helping the pupils attain their dreams.
Martin Andua, the school's committee chairperson, is a retired civil servant and an alumnus who attended the school 30 years ago. He says that Aria Primary School, in its glory days, was a school to contend with but has deteriorated drastically over the years. He is, however, positive that the girls' WASH facility is key to restoring the school's lost glory. "Most people don't understand the domino effect of this facility," he said. "Offering support to our girl children will inspire them to remain in school and avert the tear-jerking dropout statistics in the west Nile region. Overall, dropout rates amongst girls are very high, with up to 30 per cent of them leaving school prematurely."
It is easy to understand how the old facilities negatively impacted learning and led to female pupils dropping out. Right next to the newly constructed girls' latrine is the now-defunct latrine, which is set to be razed down. The two-door structure, which was built with unstable blocks, features a cracked cement floor, creaking crooked doors, and a nauseating stench, replete with a swarm of flies. But that's not the worst of it; it had to be shared by at least 140 pupils during classroom breaks.
Fridah Asetaru, 16, is excited about what the new girls' facility means for her and her classmates. "I like the fact that we can now bathe at school. That used to be my biggest problem," Asetaru says. "I also used to take off my uniform and only remain in my vest and petticoat before going into the old latrine because they used to smell a lot."
Asetaru, who looks neat and well-polished, is a daughter of peasant farmers and would like to pursue teaching as a profession. She is confident that the new bathroom will make her come to school every day. "Bathing every day makes me feel so comfortable," she says. For a girl whose only ticket to a better future is education, the girls' latrine is a bridge to a future filled with possibilities.
Curbing the spread of water related diseases
Right next to Aria Primary School is St. Francis Health Centre III, where UNICEF WASH facilities were installed 2 years ago. The health centre, which serves a catchment population of 14,000 across three parishes, has come a long way from a time when water borne illnesses were easily passed around in the community.
"Before these UNICEF WASH facilities were built here, things were stacked up against this community," Pario Silver, the health centre's clinical officer, says. "Communicable diseases were easily passed around amongst members in the community, and to make matters worse, the caretakers who fetched water from the communal borehole sometimes brought back other infections to the hospital.
"All that is in the past now. We've seen a great reduction in the formerly rampant waterborne diseases, and our medical staff have designated scrubbing areas. Our health centre is cleaner than it has ever been."
Sister Martin Draru, a midwife, agrees, "In the past, it was common for the labor suite to have a lingering stench because we often ran out of water. We once had a case where a mother bled so much in labor, but we did not have a single drop of water to clean the suite. After the tap in the maternity ward was installed, it became easier to follow hygiene protocols and to clean the suite," she says.
Matoru Helen is 9 months pregnant and nursing her brother back to health. For a caretaker in her condition, going to fetch water to drink, clean, and cook outside the facility is an uphill task. "In the old days before this water was brought here, it would have been so difficult for me to walk to the borehole to bring water. The health of my unborn child would have been compromised, but now it's easy to cook and wash clothes because the water is here."
Allen Bako is another mother taking care of her child, Liberty Zamvayo, who is admitted in the health centre. Liberty is receiving treatment for diarrhea. Bako admits that while she's at home, she doesn't pay too much attention to proper hand washing, but she's determined to learn hygiene practices while at the centre so that she can implement them at home. "The health workers have educated me about washing my hands before I prepare my child's food. I am going to make sure I follow instructions," she says.
A community uniting to guard it’s facilities.
Despite the heavy use and traffic at the health centre, the WASH facilities are still in tip-top condition, Draru says members of the community who benefit from the community tap, contribute a small fee every month. "Members of this community recall how difficult it was to access water, so they contribute willingly. We use the funds collected to replace the taps and to carry out any other necessary repairs," she says.
Lillian Ecokuru, in her role as the Acting-in-Charge at Tuku Health Centre II, situated just over 10 kilometres away from St. Francis Health Centre III, underscores the timely provision of the UNICEF WASH facilities. She notes that despite the government's approval for upgrading the health centre from level II to level III, they lacked the necessary facilities to support this transition adequately.
"With a high volume of patients, exacerbated by an influx of refugees, the existing infrastructure struggled to meet demand," she says. Ecokuru anticipates that the newly established facilities will not only alleviate these longstanding challenges but also significantly enhance the quality of care provided to their patients, marking a pivotal improvement in healthcare delivery within the community.
