Project successes
This project has met its aim to provide students at one rural school in Papua New Guinea (PNG) with access to toilets and clean, safe water for hand washing and drinking. Mongen Primary School is located in a rural community in PNG’s East Sepik Province. The school has 337 students (150 girls and 187 boys) and nine teachers.
This project is part of a broader community water, sanitation and hygiene program being delivered by WaterAid and its local partners in the East Sepik Province of PNG.
Before the project
Prior to this project, the school had no on-site water supply system for students and three very dilapidated toilets shared by all the students. The toilets were open pit toilets constructed from rotting wood with large gaps between the slabs that made them dangerous to use and ineffective at stopping disease transmission from flies and rodents. One of the toilets had been abandoned altogether and was almost completely camouflaged by the surrounding undergrowth when our project team visited - see photo below
After the project
Thanks to the support of Footprints Network donors, this project constructed new ventilated improved pit (VIP) toilets.
These toilets are specially designed with vent pipes and cement slabs to minimise bad smells and to trap flies and other flying insects below in the pit – a key vector of disease. The cement slabs are also much easier to keep clean and maintain than toilets made out of traditional bush materials.
This was the first time the staff and students had seen VIP toilets and they were very impressed with the design. The boys were so happy with their new toilets that they started using them before they were even finished!
The Headmaster and teachers were very positive about their new toilets and took the initiative to construct additional toilets with a purpose-made mould that WaterAid left behind at the school.
Since the project was completed, the school has constructed four more toilets using their new skills and mould, including a teachers’ toilet.
In Papua New Guinea, adolescent girls often stay home from school when they are menstruating because they do not have a private place to wash. This project also provided a shower block for the girls in response to these needs.
The girls shower room is accessed via the toilet which means girls can use it discretely and without drawing attention to themselves. All of the older girls appreciated this design consideration! We anticipate that these new facilities, together with the toilets, will make a big impact on the girls’ decision to stay in school past adolescence.
Photo: Girls' wash room under construction
The project was also able to provide the school with a sustainable and safe drinking water supply. The students had previously had to leave school to collect water for drinking and never practiced hand washing as there was no convenient source nearby.
Now the students are able to access sufficient clean, safe water for drinking and hand washing from a 5,000L rainwater tank.
Photo: Constructing the new rainwater harvesting system at Mongen Primary School
Four taps were also installed, one for drinking, two for hand washing and one within the girls’ washroom for discretion.
Lastly, the project staff undertook a number of interactive activities with staff and students designed to reinforce messages around hygiene and hand washing. Topics included how disease is spread, critical times for hand washing and proper use and maintenance of latrines to ensure cleanliness.
The school board of management and teaching staff have now taken on responsibility for maintaining their new infrastructure and developed a roster accordingly.
Photo: Students participating in hygiene promotion activities that emphasise hand washing at key times
Partnership
This project was carried out by Integrated Rural Development Initiative (IRDI), one of WaterAid’s local partner organisations in PNG. IRDI is a very small local NGO that undertakes community water, sanitation and hygiene projects in East Sepik Province that was established in 2012. WaterAid provides ongoing technical and organisational support to IRDI as part of our commitment to strengthening the local PNG water, sanitation and hygiene sector.
This project will provide 400 children at a rural school in Papua New
Guinea with toilet facilities, and clean water for drinking and
hand-washing, to improve child health and school retention rates.
This is the second school toilets program that Footprints has supported in the Eastern Highlands region.
What’s covered in project cost
The total cost of providing water, sanitation and hygiene education to one school in Papua New Guinea’s Eastern Highlands Province by December 2013 is $28,325. This includes:
- Installing 6 toilets
- A tank-based water supply
- One female shower
- Running educational workshops for students and teachers
- Monitoring and evaluation of the project
Project objective, aims and outcomes
Clean water, and safe and private toilets, are essential in promoting good hygiene behaviour and general health and leads to:
- Improved health among students - less incidence of diarrhoea
- Increased school attendance and performance due to healthier students
- More girls staying in school - menstruating girls often skip school or drop out altogether due to shame and lack of privacy
Getting girls to stay in school
WaterAid and its partners pay special attention to the issue of girls leaving school early because of the stigma and embarrassment associated with menstruation.
WaterAid's school water, sanitation and hygiene program includes the development of appropriate girl-friendly toilets and showers.
These activities will have a positive impact on girls’ attendance and completion of schooling, which of course brings a great many benefits not only to the girls, but to their future family’s health and the community as a whole.
Photo: A new tap provides safe, clean water (WaterAid)
Project partners and community involvement
WaterAid will work with a long-term local partner, ATprojects, on this project. ATprojects aims to enable rural people to develop and use skills and appropriate technologies that give them more control over their lives and contribute to the sustainable development of their communities.
WaterAid supports ATprojects through funding, by providing advice and sharing resources, and providing monitoring and evaluation advice.
The schoolchildren will be involved in construction of the facilities in appropriate ways (eg collecting plant-based materials for the walls and roof, and undertaking light construction work), and their parents’ involvement is also encouraged. Local materials are used in the construction of the facilities.
How this project fits into a larger strategy
WaterAid has been working in Papua New Guinea since 2005.
Papua New Guinea faces many development challenges. People living in rural communities typically have low access to education and suffer many preventable diseases such as diarrhea.
Over 900 children die each year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and sanitation.
This project creates clean water and sanitation and thus helps reduce preventable diseases.
Photo: Taps at Keto Primary School provide students with clean washing water (WaterAid/John Faunt)