Cholera: Stronger WASH, hygiene education needed in Borno schools
By Hauwa Abdulrahman
Recent cholera outbreaks in parts of Borno State have highlighted the need for stronger water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) measures in schools, particularly in communities vulnerable to recurring outbreaks.
Although emergency response measures have helped contain recent outbreaks in parts of Jere and Konduga Local Government Areas, the experience raises a broader public health question: how can communities prevent cholera from returning once an outbreak has been brought under control?
One important area of focus is the school environment.
Children spend a significant part of their day in schools, making schools an important setting for promoting hygiene and preventing the transmission of waterborne diseases.
Young children are also particularly vulnerable to severe illness when infected with cholera. This makes early hygiene education and access to safe water and sanitation facilities important components of disease prevention.
Regular hygiene education can help pupils understand basic preventive practices, including washing their hands with soap, drinking safe water, using toilets properly and maintaining personal cleanliness.
Such messages can be incorporated into classroom activities, morning assemblies and school health clubs, allowing hygiene education to become part of the pupils’ routine rather than an intervention introduced only during an outbreak.
However, education alone may have limited impact where schools lack the facilities needed to practise what pupils are taught.
A pupil may be taught the importance of handwashing, for instance, but the lesson becomes difficult to translate into practice if the school has no functional handwashing station, inadequate water supply or insufficient soap.
This suggests that hygiene education and WASH infrastructure need to be addressed together.
Schools in communities considered vulnerable to cholera outbreaks therefore require sustained attention to access to safe drinking water, functional toilets, handwashing facilities, drainage and proper waste disposal.
The condition of these facilities is particularly important in densely populated communities, where poor sanitation and unsafe water can increase the risk of disease transmission.
There is also a need to strengthen the capacity of teachers and school health personnel to recognise possible symptoms of cholera and other waterborne diseases.
Early recognition and appropriate referral can help reduce delays in seeking medical attention, particularly where children become ill while at school.
The recent outbreaks also demonstrate why preventive measures should not stop when an outbreak is declared under control.
Emergency interventions are necessary during an outbreak, but long-term investments in water and sanitation are more likely to address some of the conditions that allow waterborne diseases to persist or re-emerge.
Schools can also serve as an important link between public health interventions and households.
When pupils acquire practical hygiene habits at school and practise them at home, they can help reinforce awareness among parents, siblings and other members of their communities.
For Borno, therefore, strengthening school-based WASH interventions should be viewed not only as an education-sector responsibility but also as part of broader public health preparedness.
Government authorities, humanitarian organisations and development partners have important roles to play in ensuring that schools in vulnerable communities have sustainable access to water, sanitation facilities and hygiene education.
The experience of recent cholera outbreaks provides an opportunity to move from largely reactive interventions to stronger preventive measures.
Sustained disease surveillance, health education, safe water supply and improved sanitation in schools could help reduce the risk of future outbreaks and protect children from the potentially serious consequences of cholera and other waterborne diseases.
