My objection however is not just on the basis of the unsanitary conditions of these cesspools. My objecton is based on the ideological basis of this innovation. I strongly believe that underpinning the thinking around the Blair toilet, is the fact that black Africans do not deserve better. International agencies can pet themselves on the back and say we have provided sanitation to hundreds/thousands of “poor” African children by digging pit latrines. Why, at a school, where you are supposed to impart good standards of hygiene and cleaniliness do we subject children to such deplorable conditions?

There might have been a time when this was justifiable, but so many years after independence, can we still justify pit latrines at our schools and hospitals? Why do we have such low standards? What are we teaching our children? That they do not deserve better? What possible constraints justify this? If someone is going to build a whole school, why should they not properly plan for good toilets?

The plight of girls in rural schools is even worse. Research has shown that once they reach puberty, girls start missing school. Poverty forces them to use clothes and rags during their menses. Poverty forces them to wash and reuse these rags – they cannot afford proper sanitary wear. Now a clever man somewhere designed and built a blair toilet which does not have provision for this girl to change her soiled rag and wash it so that she can put it away for reuse. Is she changes it and puts it away somewhere, then she is likely to spend the day reeking of rotten meat. If she does not change her soiled rag, then she runs the risk of spoiling her dress and being riduculed by all and sundry- a fate worse than death for adult women and young girls alike! This leaves a girl with no option but to miss school for the 5 days to 1 week that she has her menstrual period. Every month. These days add up. Soon this girl is lagging behind in her school work and failing. Soon the parents decide she is a waste of money. That’s the end. All because people have not thought to provide proper sanitation facilities for both girls and boys in our schools. It’s criminal!