THE parents of students living inside the King Bhekuzulu High School, KwaNongoma, are worried, following the increase in cases of their illness, suffering from diseases associated with hygiene.
With the discovery ofOf this countrythis just happened, the school as well as the place where the students live has a problem of lack of water which leads to not being easy to maintain hygiene.
According to the parent who asked not to be identified, the problem started at the beginning of this year, as everything was going well last year.
“Since the beginning of this year, it is said that there is no water in the school. The flushing toilets have not been working for a long time, and the students are forced to use the pit toilets, which are said to be extremely dirty,” said a parent.
He pointed out that the pit toilets were not cleaned as the water could not be seen.
“My child ended up getting sick and when I took him to the doctor, he examined him and found out that he was suffering from a disease caused by using unclean toilets,” said the parent.
He said he received a report that some children, when they reported it to the warden of the students’ residence, he replied that “he is tired of students who are always sick”.
“We are saddened by this statement because it is our children who are being answered like this,” said a parent who said that the school should take their children’s health seriously.
He complained a lot about the principal of the school which he said he never bothered to explain to them the situation when they pay a lot of money for their children living inside the school.
“We pay R28 000 per child. We are about 208 parents, in some cases there are parents with more than one child. We see most of this money to prevent our children from getting sick from diseases associated with hygiene,” he said.
The chairman of the governing body of the school, Mr. Ntokozo Khanye, admitted that there is a water problem in the school but said that this is a problem facing the whole of Nongoma.
“Normally, they come out of the tap in the area and at school on certain days. When they go out, they go into the tanks, and then they are used when they don’t come out of the tap anymore. The problem starts when they go for many days, which leads to them ending up in the tanks,” said Khanye.
He said there are times when it has forced him to close flush toilets, to use pit toilets, and children have reported that they are not clean.
“Right now, we are working on installing pitas as a solution that will go a long way to the water problem in KwaNongoma, which is affecting the school. However, we are still looking for surveyors to see if there is enough water in the soil to see if this will work,” he said.