This is a SWASH+ photo essay on the plight of school WASH.

2. Funding for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in
Kenyan schools’ budget is a fraction of what is needed.
Schools are forced to make choices between maintaining
WASH improvements and other expenditures such as
upkeep of classrooms.

3. School staff cite ‘lack of easy access to water’ as one of main
reasons for poor hygiene at school. Students at this school have
no water source on site.
The school relies on students to bring a few litres each day to
supplement the school water supply.

4. One of the improvements made possible through the SWASH+ project
was the construction of school boreholes, an on-site source of water.

5. When boreholes break, schools rely on
unclean water from nearby rivers or
streams.

6. A water chlorination or other treatment
solutions, such as WaterGuard, should be
used to make collected water safe for
drinking. The SWASH+ project baseline
data collection revealed that no schools
tested positive for chlorine residual in
school stored drinking water.

7. Once water is gathered and ideally
treated it can go to waste. Taps on
water vessels frequently break and
need repair. Due to limited
government funding, parents are
often called on to provide funds to
repair or replace supplies. However,
this can be a large burden for families
in the area.

8. Toilet paper is a luxury and is
rarely provided due to
insufficient school WASH
funding. Schools are not
allocated money specifically for
toilet paper or sanitary pads.
If schools decide to provide
toilet paper or sanitary pads
they must draw on funds
designated for competing
needs, such as test materials or
building infrastructure
(McMahon, 2011).

9. Schools also need to
be budget for long-
term maintenance for
infrastructure like
latrines. Over time,
latrine doors break,
iron roofs and sheets
separating stalls rot,
and latches do not
close. Dilapidated
latrines put school
children’s health and
safety at risk.

10. Additional funding for
school WASH will help
maintain the quality of
school latrines. Unwashed,
leaking and smelly latrines
are less likely to be utilized
by students.
Quality, not quantity of
latrines was found by
SWASH+ to be very
important for student’s
use of latrines at schools.

11. Students are
typically
responsible for
cleaning
latrines. At
Wagai Primary
School students
have long
handled
brooms to keep
them a safe
distance from
contaminants.

12. Latrine cleaning can be a
dirty job. Some schools
cannot always afford proper
tools for cleaning latrines.
Children are reluctant to
clean using short handled
brooms made from reeds or
tree branches.

13. Children in SWASH+ project schools were
made aware of proper sanitation and hygiene
practices through teacher trainings and
health clubs. There is a need to reinforce
these subjects through the school curriculum.
In addition, schools face the challenge of
consistently providing supplies like soap,
WaterGuard and anal cleansing materials so
students can practice what they learn.

14. Keeping an ample supply of items like soap,
bleach, and sanitary pads is a challenge.
These pads were stored in a cupboard at
the school and the packages were torn by
mice.
Even when schools have supplies theft and
proper storage can present challenges.
Rodent-safe containers and locks help
prevent product loss.

15. Schools throughout Kenya face a variety of challenges due
to lack of funding and limited allocation of funds for school
WASH. Thanks in part to SWASH+ research and advocacy,
the Ministry of Education has doubled funding for WASH in
primary schools in Kenya.
Further increases are needed. In addition,
monitoring progress in WASH provision will
be key for accountability and change in
school WASH.

16. References
McMahon, S., Caruso, B., Obure, A., Rheingans, R. ‘Anal cleansing practices
and faecal contamination: a preliminary investigation of behaviours and
conditions in schools in rural Nyanza Province, Kenya.’ (2011). Tropical
Medicine and International Health. 16:12: 1536-1540.
Photography by CARE/Brendan Bannon. Photo essay by Julie Straw; edited by
Malaika Cheney-Coker.
SWASH+ is a five-year applied research project to identify, develop, and test
innovative approaches to school-based water, sanitation and hygiene in
Nyanza Province, Kenya. The partners that form the SWASH+ consortium
are CARE, Emory University, the Great Lakes University of Kisumu, the
government of Kenya, and the former Kenya Water for Health
Organisation (KWAHO), and Water.org. SWASH+ is funded by the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Water Challenge. For more
information, visit www.swashplus.org.