95% schools of Sindh do not have drinking water facility
Karachi:24 March:Around 95% public schools along Sindh coastline do not have the facility of drinking water and washrooms for students, said Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) field coordinator Gulab Shah while revealing the findings of a survey.
He was sharing the details and data of a survey that was conducted by PFF, which is a non-governmental organisation working in Karachi. “We conducted the survey in Kharo Chan and Keti Bunder tehsil of Thatta district, where 95% schools lack drinking water facility,” he said.
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According to the data, there are around 3,217 schools in entire district, where 165,889 students are enrolled, Shah added. However, he said, hardly any school is equipped with basic facilities, including water, sanitation, hygiene, electricity and boundary walls.
World Water Day
Various programmes were organised by civil society activists in government schools across Karachi on the occasion of World Water Day, celebrated on March 22. ‘One can live without love, but cannot live without water’ was the slogan of the activists and the participants. The organisers taught the participants about the importance of water and sanitation and taught children how to wash hands.
Zain Rehman, a class two student of Government High School Morro Mir Bahar in Ibrahim Hyderi, said he doesn’t have a water bottle and he always quenches his thirst after he returns home from school. Another student said that whenever they feel extremely thirsty, they go to a mosque located near their school to drink water. One of the students said he goes to the bushes if he ever has to use the washroom because they don’t have toilets in their school.
There are around 200 students in these schools, many of whom claimed that they have never seen the facilities of washrooms or drinking water in their school premises. “I have been posted here for 12 years. We are told every year that we will be provided these facilities but all in vain,” a teacher said.
