Euthini Secondary School head teacher bemoans water woes
Euthini Secondary School says very little is being done to curb the water problem that has rocked the school for almost a year now, but Mzimba District Commissioner has assured the problem will be over before the new school term starts.
The school, which has over 560 students, was first hit by water challenges in September last year (2015), forcing its closure on December 4th while the rest of the schools closed two weeks later (18th December).
The situation has been forcing students to queue for water at the only borehole within the school campus.
The school’s Head teacher, Crescent Kapira, told Malawi News Agency (Mana) that though they (school authorities) have been communicating to the office of the District Commissioner (DC) on the matter, nothing tangible has been done to arrest the problem.
“This situation is worrisome considering the fact that the date for schools to open is fast approaching, and there seems to be no hope of the problem being eradicated.
“At first, due to low pressure, the water was failing to go up into the main tank. So there was need to use pipes with wider radius.
“However, officials from Mzuzu University’s Department of Water Development helped us in installing the pipes,” explained Kapira.
He expressed worry that water harvested from the recent rains may not be enough to cater for the entire coming education season which starts on September 5, 2016.
When contacted on Monday, Mzimba District Commissioner, Thomas Chirwa, said there is a programme to drill three boreholes at the school but has delayed. However, he told this reporter the contractor has been engaged of late.
The district commissioner assured the three boreholes would be drilled before the start of the new academic calendar on September 5.
“The truth of the matter is that the driller has been busy with other tasks in Nkhota-Kota District recently, and he is currently in Rumphi. From there that’s when he will come here [in Mzimba] to do a couple of projects.
“We will start with Edingeni because we have had a similar problem there, and then he will proceed to Euthini Secondary School to drill the three boreholes. I can assure you that before the new term starts [on September 5] the problem will be fully addressed,” assured the DC.
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The water problem at EUSESCO is not new. I was there from 1987-1991 and there was still a water problem then. We still had to queue at one single bore-hole to fetch water – first for the kitchen so the staff can use it to prepare our meals, then to take a bath (if you did not belong to SSS – Soap Saving Society). This just shows how our leadership at all levels fails to do their jobs. A school kid is not supposed to worry about water or books etc. School is already ‘stressful’ enough. Let’s hope this will… Read more »