Status of Children in Tanzania - 2012 - Tanzania Education Network ...

Call for Action
The situation is not healthy in other areas of Tanzania; the population with piped water has not
grown over the past decades. There is no equity to water distribution; accessing water is a serious
problem. Research findings indicate that 60% of urban water is lost to leakages, whereby 13% is
illegal taps. Water for drinking and washing is a critical problem in substantial areas in Tanzania,
like Dodoma, Mtwara, Singida and Lindi where they rely heavily on shallow well. Impliedly water is
becoming unaffordable resources, a study by Water Aid in 2012 at Temeke- Dar es Salaam
established that out of its 200,000 households 120,000 are unconnected to pipe water, so they
don‟t have access to clean and safe water. Water problem is more severe to the poor. The 2012
findings from MoHSW revealed that 21 million people in Tanzania cannot access clean and safe
water.
The situation of water in schools of both rural and urban is a critical problem to child survival. The
schools are not connected to the pipe water or for those connected they cannot easily service the
bills, and agences created like DAWASCO or DAWASA can easily disconnect the service. Thus the
children cannot wash their hands. Or some of the schools do not have adequate area to construct
required number of latrines; others do not have financial resource to build standard latrines. The
challenge of sanitation in schools is a problem that demand long term intervention to rid children
from risk of their life e.g. to get diarrhea, worms or other epidemic. Children need to live in standard
hygiene life style. All primary and secondary schools needs to be supplied with reliable water
supply that can help them to wash their hands and attain minimum health behavior as a right for
their growth, survival and development. For most primary schools, secondary schools, day care
centre, feeding post in place like Kagera this is a nightmare.
The problem of water is closely associated with poor hygiene and sanitation facilities to children.
Most of the schools do not have latrines. The latrines at school are in poor conditions. The problem
is also vivid in poor households who cannot afford to improve sanitation facilities who sometimes
rely on unsanitary toilets which are major challenges to children. This is a serious problem affecting
regions like Mwanza, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Tanga and Dodoma. In the
mentioned places toilets are constructed by wood materials which can easily rotten and not easily
repaired. The environmental hazard makes children to be at high risk for their survival. The pit
latrines are sometimes flooded during rainy season and some of them are being discharged to
create a very poor sanitary environment that is unhealthy.
The 2012 statistics indicates that 90% of Tanzanian‟s do not have quality latrines as compared to
only 10% with quality latrines. Findings indicate that more than 6 million Tanzanian people attend
nature call at the bush because of lack of latrines. In schools 52% of latrines used by girls do not
have doors, and 96% of schools do not have friendly environment to children with disabilities.
In the deed situation of regions like Dar es Salaam, Singida, Mtwara, Klimanjaro, Kagera, Kigoma,
Manyara, Zanzibar, Iringa, Mara, Mbeya and Coastal region have poor water supply, lack of access
to clean and safe water, poor sanitation condition have subjected children to be vulnerable to
disease. More importantly, most of the toilets are not child friendly, the ratio between students‟
population and toilet holes are below standards provided by the Ministry of education and
vocational training. On other primary schools visited in Dar es Salaam at Temeke Ilala and
Kinondoni districts toilets are not hygienically friendly to children. Their centres for brewing disease,
thus demands immediate intervention starting with country in depth research on toilets and
sanitation condition at Tanzania primary schools and how they pose a threat to children rights
violation.
4.2.10 Nutrition status and children rights
Nutrition status is affected by food intake, health, and caring practices. Good nutrition is a desired
outcome for ensuring optimal human health, as well as key determinant of development, for the
individual and society in general. Malnourished people are not as productive as they could
otherwise be. Lack of nutrition security is reflected in malnutrition affecting many Tanzanians in
different forms. Research findings indicates that onset of child malnutrition in Tanzania is very high.
According to TDHS 2006 about 40% of children under five years of age in Tanzania are stunted.
Whereas approximately 22% of children are underweight, (kindly see Table 8 which follows)
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