By Azra Ameen
Around 1,299 schools or nearly one million school children and around 200,000 families in the island do not have access to toilets, Deputy General Manager of the National Water Supply and Drainage Board, Deepthi Sumanasekera said following a survey conducted by the National Water Supply and Drainage Board.
Nearly 1,860 schools have dilapidated toilets or don’t have access to water.
“Those who do not have access to toilets are bound to be easy prey to various diseases and kidney damage,” Chairman of the Sri Lanka Water Partnership Kusum Athukorala said.
In some cases, children and teachers don’t use the toilets in most schools. This curtails their water intake during class hours which causes an increase in diseases, she said.
This was discussed at a workshop conducted by the South Asian Women of Media together with Sri Lanka Water Partnership on the Tuesday (29). This was done in order to create awareness among the journalists on the South Asia conference on sanitation- SACOSAN 1V – 2011, which is to be held from April 4-8. It is based on the discussions related to issues on the use of toilets, disposal of waste in an environment friendly manner and other sanitation issues in the island.
The Island