Schools Ecological Sanitation Promotion.

Case: Tanzania.
Edmund John
Environmental Engineering and Pollution Control
Organization (EEPCO)
P.O. Box 7018
Dar Es Salaam
Tanzania
Tel & Fax: +255 22 2761012, Mobile: +255 754 276808,
E-mail: edmundjoh@gmail.com

Abstract

Environmental concerns, urbanization and population increases in Tanzania had placed

pressure on the government to undertake immediate, short and long term remedial actions,
particularly in terms of improving school sanitation. Overcrowding and inadequate facilities
have a negative impact on the quality of education. In many schools, classes house 150 or
more children per room. Many buildings are in serious disrepair, and toilets are both
insufficient and often non-functioning. Latrine coverage is grossly inadequate with over 200
pupils sharing a toilet in some schools, against the recommended government ratios of 25
girls/toilet and 30 boys/toilet. In additions, there are hardly any hand-washing facilities in
place. According to (MOEC, 2000) a total of 168,928 toilets are required to meet the 38% of
unmet school sanitary facilities in the country.
While the impact of poor sanitation and hygiene is known to be disastrous for infants and
young children, it also has an important impact on the health of school-age children including
adolescents. It is obvious that lack of sanitation and hygiene is a public disaster that deserves
the highest priority

Since 2004 EEPCO has been promoting school sanitation taking into consideration ecological
sanitation as the appropriate environmental friendly technology in Tanzania. The programme
has benefited the schools in the Coastal region of Tanzania and Hai Moshi Kilimanjaro. The
organization has been using the multi-displinary approach which goes hand in hand with
hygiene behavior change that breaks the infectious cycle of diseases, and in turn it creates the
nutrients recycling from urine and faeces as the fertilizers and soil conditioners through the
introduction of Ecosan facilities.

The organization approach treats the schools as an integral part of a community. The
involvements of the local community in school sanitation and hygiene activities have been
increasing the effectiveness of the Ecosan dissemination. It also promotes the sense of
ownership within communities that is needed to sustain the school Ecosan systems for
operation and maintenance, particularly important for the principle of Ecosan and its recycled
nutrients. Experience shows that children can act as potential agents of change within their
homes and communities through their knowledge and use of sanitation and hygiene practice
learned at school. 

In brief, the school ecological sanitation is trapped by the following challenges. A strategic
approach needs to address these issues, along with the institutional, legal, technical and social
levels, in order to ensure a step forward in improving school sanitation in Tanzania. However,
some remain out of scope. The paper will bring some lessons learnt from Tanzania context. It
will also suggest school eco-sanitation sustainability.

Keywords: Sustainability, sanitation, Hygiene, fertilizer, soil conditioner.