Zambia
WASH IN SCHOOLS (SPLASH)
A USAID/Zambia funded and new WASHplus supported activity known as SPLASH (Schools Promoting Learning Achievement through Sanitation and Hygiene) is underway in Zambia to support the Ministry of Education to bring clean drinking water, student-friendly latrines, and hand washing stations to schools in two provinces (Eastern and North Western).
Good student performance depends on many factors, but schools with reliable supplies of safe drinking water, a place to wash hands with water and soap and clean and accessible, child-friendly toilets or latrines can improve attendance and support better learning as students miss fewer days of school due to diarrheal diseases and other illnesses. And fewer girls will need to miss school or drop altogether because of a lack of water or a separate latrine, which is especially important as girls grow older and reach puberty.
The goal of SPLASH is to improve health, learning and performance of basic level students and teachers by providing a cleaner and safer learning environment. Project activities focus on improving sustainable access to safe water and adequate sanitation and the adoption of better hygiene and health practices SPLASH is part of the USAID/Zambia Education Team’s portfolio that includes other projects designed to strengthen the MOE institutional, teacher and student performances, especially in reading achievement. SPLASH will contribute to the overall goal of improving reading skills by tackling student attendance and dropout rates, teacher attrition, and overall health and well being. Girls and female teachers are disproportionately affected by poor sanitation facilities. SPLASH aims to achieve not only greater access to safe drinking water and sanitation in schools but also to strengthen local operations and maintenance and management capacity by offering innovative solutions to commonly encountered technical and organizational problems, and linking school efforts to community development and ownership. (More-SPLASH one pager)
Zambia Quick Facts