Investigations carried by the ‘Sunday News’
discovered that students use unsafe water for domestic purposes, including
drinking, cooking, washing and worse of all, drinking the water fresh from the
lake without boiling it first, while surrounding villages relieve themselves in
the lake.
A cross-section of school teachers and students
who were interviewed by this paper said the school is afflicted with myriads of
challenges, including lack of electricity, shortage of teaching staff and
classrooms which are in bad shape.
 |
| ABOUT 303 students from Kipili Secondary School located along the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Nkasi District, Rukwa Region, are in danger of contracting water borne diseases due to drinking unsafe and unclean water from the lake, since the school lacks proper water infrastructure. |
They added that the school environment is
inhospitable and unsociable to both teachers and their students. Vice-Head of
the School, Mr Calisto Mapunda, admitted that students at the school fetch
water directly from Lake Tanganyika and use it for domestic purposes and worse
still they drink it without boiling.
“Despite such challenges, the school has no
science teacher, which compels some of us to teach the subjects including
biology, mathematics, physics and chemistry in Form One and Two because it is
compulsory for them (students) to study all the nine subjects. The school has only
nine teachers, all of them are teaching art subjects,” added Mr Mapunda.
Expounding further, he said that class-rooms are in bad shape with rough
floors, some of them have neither doors nor windows and the walls have
developed huge cracks.
On his part, Mr Chaua Zawadi, a history and civic
subject teacher at the school said that even the parents and people living in
the school vicinity have abandoned the school, with the opinion that it is the
government’s responsibility to run and manage it.
“The schools surroundings are infested with
different species of snakes including cobra, such reptiles are a threat to the
lives of the students, for instance, the boys’ dormitory has no doors ….
Equally Lake Tanganyika is also infested with crocodiles which can easily
attack students when they are either fetching water or swimming,” said Mr
Zawadi.
Similar sentiments were echoed by several
students, including Loveness Chaula, Manuel Kamanki, Hosana Kalikula and Joseph
Kakunda, who added that it is very pit that they are forced to sleep on the
floor in their dormitories due to shortage of beds.
Reposted
Post a Comment