By Seraphine Nyuiemedi
Students of the Bishop Herman College in the Kpando Municipality of the Volta Region have appealed to government and other relevant authorities to provide them with adequate toilet facilities and access to potable water.
Some form 3 students told GBC News that they have resorted to defecating in the open since they gain admission into the school due to the bad nature of the only two toilet facilities in the school.
The Bishop Herman College, also known as BIHECO which is located in the Kpando Municipality of the Volta Region, has over two thousand student population. The school currently has only two 20-seater toilet facilities that are also in bad condition, forcing most of the students to rather defecate in the open.
This notwithstanding, a 10 seater toilet facility which was started about 4 years ago has been abandoned for reasons best known to the authorities. Some of the students who have been defecating in the open for nearly 3 years now shared their plights with GBC News.
“Toilet facility is being built, but it’s not yet completed. Since we came to form one they were building it, but they are not done. But there’s a toilet facility at the top which is very small for the student population so we do it in the bush. We will like government to come to our aid.”
“Sometimes we even see the snakes in the bush and so we feel insecure. This has been happening since we came to form one and we are currently in form three.”
A form 3 student, Anumah Prince Charles, also lamented bitterly about the struggles they usually go through to have access to water.
“In this house particularly, Bishop Lodonu’s house, house seven, we normally struggle to get water. Sometimes more than a week before they pump water into our booster, sometimes for the whole semester we don’t get water and we have to go to the top house to fetch water.”
“And even the water at the top house is not even clean water, it’s metallic water, which is somehow brown and even that one you have to go and stand in a queue. Sometimes we don’t bath before attending classes due to the unavailability of water.”
“Sometimes we don’t get water to wash our things and sometimes we don’t even get drinking water. We want the government to come and help us to fix our problems.”
The students said the lack of adequate toilet facilities and access to good water increase their chances of contracting diarrhoea and other sanitation-related diseases. They are, therefore, appealing to the government and other relevant authorities to as a matter of urgency come to their aid.
A staff who spoke on condition of anonymity, said authorities, including, the Member of Parliament for the area, the Municipal Chief Executive, the Regional Minister and officials from the Municipal Assembly had visited the school on several occasions to engage management over the issue but nothing positive has come out of it yet.
