Kathmandu: Water Aid Nepal organized a three day photo exhibition ‘School Sanitation: The Neglected Development Link’ to showcase sanitation at schools,Thursday at Nepal Art Council, Babarmahal.

The exhibition was inaugurated by a four-year-old Bunu Nepal in the absence of Minister for Education Gangalal Tuladhar.

The exhibition features images by Nepali Photo journalists who through their lens have illustrated the effect of sanitation on the lives of school children across Kathmandu valley.

At the exhibition 43 photos by Bijay Gajmer, Kabita Thapa, Rajesh Gurung, Rocky Prajapati and Shruti Shrestha from different 18 schools were showcased.

Those depict the students are suffering from lack of toilets in schools and cleaning problems.

According to Nepal government policy, schools must ensure one toilet for every 50 students. However Water Aid’s analysis shows that the average school toilet serves 127 students, nearly three times as a many as the government of Nepal recommends. Addtionally, there are approximately 28,000 community schools, only 18,000 of them have toilets and only 5580 of these schools provide separate toilets for girls.

As per government data approximately10,500 children under the age of five die due to hygiene and sanitation related diseases more than half of which are girls. Every month teenage girls risk missing several days of class during their menstrual period or, inequality. It is estimated that nearly two million female students have no access to toilets in school.

Water Aid today called for immediate action to be taken to build separate, differently able friendly toilets for boys and girls.

Country Representative in Nepal Ashutosh Tiwari said, "Every child has a right to sanitation and a lack of adequate infrastructure and facilities at schools has a negative impact on education, health, dignity, security and economic growth."

source: RisingNepal