Holy Rosary Secondary School for Girls, Pujehun Town

This school, like many others, suffered greatly during the civil war (1991-2002); school equipment was lost, buildings were damaged and garden crops and plants stolen. But the dedicated staff still manage to provide a good standard of education for the pupils.

Most of the 450 girls are day pupils, but there are about 25 boarders, as they come from distant villages. Their accommodation is very basic, with school sanitation facilities that were awful – they had no privacy, and no washing facilities. But this situation is now very different!

The construction of the new ecosan toilet is now complete. As can be seen from the photos below, the design includes four individual ecosan “pods”, which are accessed from inside the unit, offering complete privacy for the girls.

The water for washing is gravity-fed from the raised tank that can be seen on the platform to the side of the ecosan, supply coming from a rainwater harvesting tank (RWH), fed from the roof of the adjoining girl’s dormitory block. There is a further new well being dug, to supplement the existing well, and a further RWH tank, which will also be a supply for the school market garden.

This market garden is going to be developed as a research facility, growing some of the vegetables using compost from the ecosan, and some without, giving a clear indication of the benefits of using this free resource to improve plant growth and nutrition.

There is a great deal that still needs to be done at the school, but by providing this ecosan and washing facility the risk of intestinal illness will be greatly reduced, thus ensuring pupils will not have their education disrupted. Perhaps as important, the use of a clean sanitation unit will restore dignity and self confidence to all the pupils and staff, thus generating a greater opportunity for educational success.