Health Danger Looms At Mepe Saint-Kizito Snr.High Tech Sch!--Over Lack Of Proper Sanitary Facilities; As Students Defecate In Bushes
The situation, this paper gathered, puts the students at the risk of being attacked by wild animals and/or bitten by dangerous reptiles hiding in the surrounding greeneries.
Freeman Koryekpor 
The lives of students, particularly those in the boarding houses at the Mepe Saint-Kizito Senior High Technical School in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region are in serious danger.
This is because of the students defecate in the bushes and also take their bath daily in makeshift structures, Soireenews.com can authoritatively report..
The situation, this news outlet gathered, is putting the students at risk of being attacked by wild animals and/or bitten by dangerous reptiles hiding in the surrounding greeneries.
Checks by Soireenews.com on the campus on Saturday, August 5, 2023, revealed the lack of proper bathing facilities in the school, this forcing hundreds of the students both male and female students who are boarders to take their baths in open spaces or makeshift structures.
The condition of the only toilet facility used by thousands of the students in the school was very appalling and that the facility had also developed many deep cracks and it was totally full to its capacity and on the verge of collapse.
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The situation, according to the students, is affecting academic work, as they either use instructional hours to look for places to go to nature's call and take their baths.
“It is affecting us both emotionally and academically. In terms of academic, you can’t really get the time to go to class on time; at least you have to struggle to get a proper place to bath or go to nature's call.
That, Soireenews.com learnt, was due to the dangerous state of the only pit latrine in the school.
The school, this paper further learnt, was deprived of adequate desks, dometries, classroom blocks and canteen, which situation has compelled both the teaching staff and the students to appeal to the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to come to their aid.
The lack of proper sanitary facilities was not limited to Mepe Saint-Kizito Senior High Technical School, as a recent visit by Soireenews.com to the Mepe Traditional Area showed that about 92% per cent of public primary and Junior High Schools in the area did not have decent places of convenience.
State-owned schools including Mepe Presbyterian Primary, District Authority (DA) JHS, Mepe RC Primary and JHS lacked essential amenities that could have helped in enhancing teaching and learning in the area.
The Soireenews.com understands that many of these schools were built over two decades ago under the erstwhile Jerry John Rawlings administration and have since not seen any major facelift.
During the visit, it was also discovered that while some of the public schools had toilets, they lacked water systems.
Some students and teaching staff told this journalist that the development had compelled them to defecate in the bushes, an act that accentuates how far Ghana far from realising the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal Seven (7) which seeks to improve the provision of safe drinking water and sanitation.
The students and teachers pointed out that the issue of non-availability of toilet facilities had become part of the public school system in that part of the traditional area in the district.
“It is not even being regarded as a priority at all. So, over the years, we have become accustomed to using the bush, where it is available,” a teacher who wished to remain anonymous lamented.
Defecating in the bushes, according to the students and teachers, was very dangerous since they could be attacked by wild animals, dangerous snakes and scorpions.
“Beside the inconvenience, it is not dignifying for teachers and pupils to be rushing into the bush whenever they feel like attending to nature’s call,” another teacher fumed.
In the cause of our investigations, it became clear that most of the schools were built without providing toilet facilities.
At Mepe Presbyterian Primary School the pupils complained bitterly to this journalist that the toilet situation there was appalling.
They claimed covering their noses with handkerchiefs to escape the offensive smell that emanated from the toilet has become a daily routine for them.
And at Mepe Saint-Kizito Senior High Technical School the stencfh was even worse.
According to the students, several promises were made to them by government at the beginning of the year to improve on the facility, but those promises were yet to be fulfilled.”
The female students who are day students told this journalist that as a result of the terrible state of the toilet they always restrained themselves from using the facility and only eases themselves at home after school hours.
The story was not different at the Mepe DA JHS where many pupils preferred not to attend to nature’s call in the school till they got to a convenient place.
In an interview with Soireenews. com
some opinion leaders in Mepe blamed the authorities of the North Tongu District Assembly for the poor condition of toilets in the area.
According to them, unsanitary conditions, typical of many public school toilets in the area, send the wrong message to students about the measures put in place by state officials to improve sanitation and hygiene.
