Ikelenge Boarding Secondary School in Northwestern province is facing a possible disease outbreak owing to poor sanitary conditions at the learning facility.
The pupils at the newly opened boarding school are using shallow pit latrines that are filling up quickly because ablution blocks are yet to be completed.
China nonferrous metals, the contractor working on the boarding school claims that the company has not received funding from the government to carry out outstanding works on several parts of the boarding school that remain unfinished.
The China Nonferrous metals site supervisor, Mr. Xu, said the government had not yet paid his company to finish all the works and further referred all queries to his superiors in Lusaka.
Meanwhile, Ikelenge District Commissioner, Andrew Mpyakula, who was on the ground to assess the situation in the company of Ikelenge Town Council Chairperson, Joe Chizuza, said he would engage relevant authorities on the matter.
However, Mr. Mpyakula, directed the contractor to prioritize the health and safety of pupils and focus on urgent matters in the infrastructure.
“I am deeply concerned about the sanitary conditions at this school. The health and safety of our pupils are key and I wish to appeal to the contractor to focus on important areas of the infrastructure and quickly finish those urgent areas,” he said.
Meanwhile members of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) expressed concern over delays to finish the boarding school.
Ikelenge boarding school PTA Chairperson, Joseph Samboma, called for quick government intervention to avert diseases at the learning facility.
“It is sad to see our children subjected to such conditions. The government must step in quickly and ensure that the contractor is paid so that the ablution blocks can be completed because the safety and health of our children are non-negotiable,” he said.
Another member of the PTA, Kelvin Muke, observed that the completion of the boarding school had dragged on for far too long and that there was need for an immediate solution to the matter.
“We have been raising our concerns for a while now, and it is high time the government took action. These pupils have a right to proper sanitation facilities, we would therefore like to call upon relevant authorities to expedite the process of completing all parts of the school,” he said.
Completion of Ikelenge boarding secondary school has been dragging on for over five years.
The boarding school was initially commissioned as a private facility in early 2021 to boost secondary school enrolment in Ikelenge, an arrangement that later proved unsustainable forcing management to shift the school to its original boarding facility that was still under construction.
Atase, is CDF not designed for these types of projects? How do you manufacture a car and have no provisions for seats siting insufficient funds? If this thing did not have toilets, why was it commissioned in the first place? Someone has done some dribbling here and they need to be found and locked up.