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Challenges of Access to WASH in Schools in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Case Study from Rural Central Kazakhstan

Safe water and sanitation, which give rise to appropriate hygiene, are fundamental determinants of individual and social health and well-being. Thereby, assessing and widening access to sustainable, durable water and sanitation infrastructure remains a global health issue. Rural areas are already at...

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Autores principales: Bolatova, Zhanerke, Tussupova, Kamshat, Toleubekov, Berik, Sukhanberdiyev, Kanat, Sharapatova, Kulyash, Stafström, Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8472705/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34574575
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18189652
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author Bolatova, Zhanerke
Tussupova, Kamshat
Toleubekov, Berik
Sukhanberdiyev, Kanat
Sharapatova, Kulyash
Stafström, Martin
author_facet Bolatova, Zhanerke
Tussupova, Kamshat
Toleubekov, Berik
Sukhanberdiyev, Kanat
Sharapatova, Kulyash
Stafström, Martin
author_sort Bolatova, Zhanerke
collection PubMed
description Safe water and sanitation, which give rise to appropriate hygiene, are fundamental determinants of individual and social health and well-being. Thereby, assessing and widening access to sustainable, durable water and sanitation infrastructure remains a global health issue. Rural areas are already at a disadvantage. Poor access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) can have a major negative effect on students in rural schools. Thus, the paper aims to assess the current condition and the challenge to access WASH in rural Kazakh schools. The study was conducted in three rural schools in Central Kazakhstan. Data were gathered through a survey among pupils, observations of the WASH infrastructure and maintenance, and a face-to-face interview with school administrators. The mean survey response rate was 65% across schools. Results indicated there was no alternative drinking-water source in schools, and 15% of students said they had access to water only occasionally. Half of the students reported that the water was unsafe to drink because of a poor odor, taste, or color. The toilet in school 3 was locked with a key, and a quarter of the students reported there was no access to a key. Moreover, not having gender-separated toilet facilities was a challenge because of the traditional gender norms. Despite the effective regulations and measures of handwashing taken during COVID-19, 27.7% of the students answered that soap was not offered daily in classrooms. Additionally, warm water was only provided in school 2. About 75% of students did not have access to drying materials continuously. The study shows that having the schools’ infrastructure is not enough when characteristics, such as availability, accessibility, maintenance, operation, quality of services, education, and practices, are ignored. Cooperation between local education authorities, school administration, and parents should be encouraged to the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030.
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spelling pubmed-84727052021-09-28 Challenges of Access to WASH in Schools in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Case Study from Rural Central Kazakhstan Bolatova, Zhanerke Tussupova, Kamshat Toleubekov, Berik Sukhanberdiyev, Kanat Sharapatova, Kulyash Stafström, Martin Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Safe water and sanitation, which give rise to appropriate hygiene, are fundamental determinants of individual and social health and well-being. Thereby, assessing and widening access to sustainable, durable water and sanitation infrastructure remains a global health issue. Rural areas are already at a disadvantage. Poor access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) can have a major negative effect on students in rural schools. Thus, the paper aims to assess the current condition and the challenge to access WASH in rural Kazakh schools. The study was conducted in three rural schools in Central Kazakhstan. Data were gathered through a survey among pupils, observations of the WASH infrastructure and maintenance, and a face-to-face interview with school administrators. The mean survey response rate was 65% across schools. Results indicated there was no alternative drinking-water source in schools, and 15% of students said they had access to water only occasionally. Half of the students reported that the water was unsafe to drink because of a poor odor, taste, or color. The toilet in school 3 was locked with a key, and a quarter of the students reported there was no access to a key. Moreover, not having gender-separated toilet facilities was a challenge because of the traditional gender norms. Despite the effective regulations and measures of handwashing taken during COVID-19, 27.7% of the students answered that soap was not offered daily in classrooms. Additionally, warm water was only provided in school 2. About 75% of students did not have access to drying materials continuously. The study shows that having the schools’ infrastructure is not enough when characteristics, such as availability, accessibility, maintenance, operation, quality of services, education, and practices, are ignored. Cooperation between local education authorities, school administration, and parents should be encouraged to the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030. MDPI 2021-09-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8472705/ /pubmed/34574575 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18189652 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bolatova, Zhanerke
Tussupova, Kamshat
Toleubekov, Berik
Sukhanberdiyev, Kanat
Sharapatova, Kulyash
Stafström, Martin
Challenges of Access to WASH in Schools in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Case Study from Rural Central Kazakhstan
title Challenges of Access to WASH in Schools in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Case Study from Rural Central Kazakhstan
title_full Challenges of Access to WASH in Schools in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Case Study from Rural Central Kazakhstan
title_fullStr Challenges of Access to WASH in Schools in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Case Study from Rural Central Kazakhstan
title_full_unstemmed Challenges of Access to WASH in Schools in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Case Study from Rural Central Kazakhstan
title_short Challenges of Access to WASH in Schools in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Case Study from Rural Central Kazakhstan
title_sort challenges of access to wash in schools in low- and middle-income countries: case study from rural central kazakhstan
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8472705/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34574575
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18189652
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