Dear Editor,

In my time at school, I learned that a government was duty-bound to do for a tax-paying nation what it would otherwise have been imprudent or chaotic to do as individual citizens. Example, governments should have the roles of guarding our coastline; providing primary health care, basic education, roads, water and waste management.

Fast-forward to a recent pronouncement suggesting that students may have to take water to keep school toilets clear. I first assumed that the headline was pure drama — done to grab the attention of readers. When I read that parents would be called upon to provide their children with drinking water, I thought surely that was a reasonable request to ensure that children were consuming boiled water, instead of poor water from tanks.

I also thought the Health Minister would be thrilled that children would be given a bottle of water instead of sugar-laced drinks. Great! Right direction, so on I read. I should really have finished reading that sentence before getting that euphoric feeling about students taking clean water from home to drink.

Putting responsibility on parents and students to bring water to wash their hands and flush toilets is as impractical as it is preposterous. This is not just an ‘inconvenience’ as was suggested, this is downright unfair, burdensome and further agitating to parents already struggling to find lunch and bus fare.

Then I read a threat of school closures if parents do not step up for September. Surely there are more than two choices. How about some budget re-arranging? Siphoning money used for poorly attended and lavish celebrations into water catchment and storage tanks is another choice. Another idea is a campaign for private sector and community donations to schools for their own storage tanks for hand-washing and flushing. Schools are used for socials and meetings; it would be in everyone’s interest to have working toilets. A 2,000-gallon plastic tank costs $110,640 and $57 million was allocated for the staging of the Independence Grand Gala at the National Stadium. Sixty three schools could have been equipped with tanks for sanitary conveniences had they shaved off $7 million off a Grand Gala which had empty bleachers seats. Cut excessive and wasteful spending and invest in sanitary schools.

Sandra M Taylor Wiggan

sandra_wiggan@yahoo.co.uk