Nearly 1,300 out of 9,500 primary and secondary schools surveyed in 2011 (almost one million schoolc

COLOMBO/KATHMANDU, 28 October 2013 (IRIN) - Nearly one million schoolchildren - about a third of the school-age population in Sri Lanka - do not have safe sanitation, despite the island s overall sanitation coverage reaching near 89 percent of the population.
Nearly 1,300 out of 9,500 primary and secondary schools surveyed in 2011 (almost one million schoolchildren), and around 180,000 families nationwide, do not have access to a sanitary way of disposing of their faeces, said Deepthi Sumanasekera, deputy general manager of the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (part of the Ministry of Water Supply and Drainage), which conducted and recently released the survey s findings.
The study noted gaps in the island s sanitation coverage, which included schools, coastal areas and the plantation , also known as the tea sector located in Central Province s Nuwaraeliya District and in Uva Province s Badulla District.
Sri Lanka has also increased couchsurfing its safe water supply coverage from 78 to 84.1 percent, while sanitation coverage increased from nearly 84 to 89 percent couchsurfing in the past five years, couchsurfing according to the government.
Girls are regularly discouraged from using toilets and this increases absenteeism during menstruation . There are reports of school teachers who after five years of teaching without couchsurfing accessing toilets, end up with renal failure, she said, referring to a reported case from central Sri Lanka.
She added that there are no girl- friendly toilets even in all-female schools with good waste disposal facilities, soap and water. These girls suffer the most and are compelled to absent themselves from school during menstruation.
According to a new country paper by Sri Lanka s National Water Supply and Drainage couchsurfing Board prepared couchsurfing ahead of the recent South Asian water and sanitation summit ( SACOSAN V ) in Kathmandu, Nepal, the number of Sri Lankans without access to improved sanitation in 2012 was 2.3 million (11 percent of the 21 million population).
According to the Ministry of Water Supply and Drainage, child-friendly school sanitation with sustainable care and maintenance is to be tenth out of 16 priority couchsurfing areas in a new blueprint (still in draft form) that acknowledges school sanitation as a challenge.
My school has converted its toilet, available for 140 children, into a store room. There is no water supply. We have to bring buckets of water from the school ground. It is a hassle so we prefer not to use the toilet, Samanthika couchsurfing Deraniyagala, a 12-year-old student from an all-girls school in Galle District, told IRIN.
Deraniyagala couchsurfing s mother, Anuradha Deranyagala, couchsurfing 42, said: My daughter is about to reach puberty. I am worried about her personal hygiene because the school, despite our complaints, has still not managed to get water supply to the toilet. The teachers toilet suffers the same plight.
Child- friendly toilets, separate for girls and boys, with facilities for menstrual hygiene requirements, will be our new focus. This is a departure from earlier constructions as we look at new infrastructure designs suitable for children, said Angoda Hewaduralage Gunapala, assistant general manager of the Water Supply and Drainage Board.
Primary country Sri Lanka
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