Queen’s College Yaba, which lost two of its pupils to poor sanitary condition, is to wear a new look on resumption on March 19 after its mid-term break. The school’s facilities are being overhauled by its old girls, reports KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE.
When pupils of Queen’s College, Yaba, resume from their extended mid-term break on March 19, they will meet a number of changes in the school. Their dormitories would be sparkling clean with the walls washed or repainted, damaged mosquito nets replaced, faulty pipes repaired, rooms fumigated, and damaged metal railings welded.
In the dining hall, there would no longer be damaged rickety tables without formica covering; and while the terrazzo floors washed. In the classroom area, they will find a 15,000-Litre tank with potable water supplied by the Queen’s Delight Water factory within the premises.
The premises would have been rid of grass, sludge from burst/blocked pipes, and heap of dirt.
The cost of the ongoing clean up is being borne by the Queen’s College Old Girls’ Association. Its president, Dr Funmi Ajose, told The Nation that the job cost the group more than N20 million.
All these changes are taking place in the 90-year old college because of the deaths of two junior secondary pupils, Vivian Osuinyi and Itula Bithna.
Vivian died on February 14 and Bithna on 22, following suspected complications from illnesses related to water contamination.
It was the visit of Minister of Health Prof Isaac Adewole, to the school on February 23 that blew the matter open. He had received a phone call that that there was a diarrhea epidemic in the school.
Though the school went on mid-term break a day before his visit, a statement on the website of the Federal Ministry of Health noted that Adewole ordered an “investigation into the cause of deaths; inspection of the school environment including the Kitchen; examination of the source of water supply and its suitability for human consumption; and visitation to the bereaved families”.
The ruckus that followed the news resulted in the replacement of the principal, Dr Lami Amodu, with Mrs Biola Awe. It also elongated the five-day mid-term break, which should have ended February 26, by three weeks.
Though Dr Amodu had told the Minister nothing was amiss – as both girls did not die in school but at home, many parents complained that their wards fell ill and had to be treated for typhoid during the break.
Chairman of the school’s Parents/Teachers Association, Dr John Ofordike, said he had had to intervene when called that the pupils were falling ill some months back.
He told The Nation last week that he had to buy 3,000 bags of sachet water to check rampant stooling and vomiting.
Chairman of the School Based Management Committee (SBMC), Mr Amusat Azees, said the report investigation into the deaths had yet been made known to the school.
Plenty of Queen’s Delight water and none to drink
Many parents and others have condemned the presence of a sachet and table water packaging firm on the college’s premises for commercial purpose without attendant benefit to the school community. They argued it was an irony that such company existed yet pupils fell ill from water-borne diseases.
The Queen’s Delight sachet and bottled water is packaged by 360 Degrees, whose director is Mr Ajisafe Oluwasegun. The firm signed a 17-year Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) agreement with the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) in 2015 to produced potable water for sale in the school and outside.
At the inauguration of the water factory as part of projects initiated for the progress of the college, the then principal, Mrs Ekwutozia Osime, said the firm would supply the college part of the potable water it produced for sale. However, that was not the case as at February 22, 2017 when the school went on mid-term break for the second term of the 2016/2017 academic session.
In a phone interview with The Nation on Tuesday, Mrs Osime, who retired in 2015 shortly after the inauguration, said the contract was not followed up by the school management after her exit.
“I left shortly before the water factory got its license for production of sachet water. They got the license for bottled water shortly afterwards. The agreement was that the investor would give Queen’s College part of the water. While I was there, they laid a pipe from the factory to somewhere near the school hall but there was a complaint about the pipes being mixed with others or so.
“I expected that after I left, the management after me would have followed up with the investor. I know at a point I got complaints from the investor then that the water supplied to the college was not paid for,” she said.
On his part, Ajisafe said that his agreement to supply the school with potable water was a goodwill agreement. He said though part of his proposal, the clause was not contained in the user agreement he signed with the FME.
“The agreement that Queen’s Delight was to provide water is a goodwill agreement. It was inside a proposal that I made with the Federal Ministry of Education. But it is not in the User Agreement signed with the ministry. It is not a right; it is a goodwill agreement that could have been implemented in four years. I did not legally agree that I will do that,” Ajisafe said.
However, the Civil Engineer added that the goodwill part of the agreement was indeed implemented immediately – though it did not yield the desired result – which was to provide potable water to the school community.
“Immediately after the inauguration, we laid a pipe from the factory to an underground tank provided by the school to collect water for use. However, we found that the tank was not suitable for clean water so it could not serve that purpose,” he said.
Ajisafe also lamented that contrary to the user agreement that only Queen’s Delight would sell on the premises, other brands of packaged water was allowed in the school, forcing the company to source for clients outside.
“The agreement was that Queen’s College will not patronise any water from any other soruce. Unfortunately, we did not enjoy that under the former principal, Dr Lami Amodu. But we have had encouraging talks with the new principal who has promised to study the agreement,” he said.
In the aftermath of the water contamination crisis, Ajisafe said the firm has now provided a suitable tank that would supply potable water to the pupils in the classroom area.
“We have linked another pipe to the school area and connected it to a 15,000-litre capacity tank that we procured. We bought the tank and constructed the base and laid the pipe from our factory. We just concluded the work today (Tuesday),” he said.
Old Girls’ sanitising role
While the report of the investigation ordered by Prof Adewole has not yet been made public, Dr Ajose, President of the Old Girls’ Association, said the old girls of the school have stepped in on a rescue mission. She told The Nation that the aim of is to “establish the standard of cleanliness and hygiene Queen’s College was known for and hand it over to the school management and PTA to maintain.”
Dr Ajose attributed the epidemic to filthiness and negligence of the school’s facilities. She said investigations revealed that many of the boreholes were not deep enough and too close to septic tanks thereby vulnerable to contamination.
“The first thing we did was to correctly assess the situation. The problem is that of long-standing filth, negligence, and water pollution,” she said.
To arrest the neglect, Dr Ajose said the old girls have spent substantial funds cleaning the filth out of dormitories, classrooms, school premises and the dining hall.
She said: “The first thing we acted on was to clean the premises of the filth. We embarked on fumigation to de-contaminate the school of vectors such as bed bug and others. We invested a lot of money on the sanitization of the entire premises, included the boarding house, the staff housing, classrooms, and others.
“Plumbing works in the school are damaged. A lot of the plumbing cannot be repaired so it is costing us a lot of money. A lot of the mosquito nets are damaged; some of the walls could not be washed; we have to repaint them.
“Our initial budget was N2 million but that is not even the final budget. It excludes the painting, which is yet to be costed. A lot of welding has to be done. Some of the metal railings on the balconies are eroded and very dangerous. There is still much work to do. We don’t know yet what the final budge will be. We have not even faced the water project. We have to re-dig the boreholes because we found that the boreholes must be very deep to reach clean water and avoid contamination. Most of the boreholes are shallow that is why they are easily contaminated by sewage.
“A set (of old girls) in the school had spent a lot of money on the dining hall and the kitchen. But there are some old tables without covering, which are falling apart. Those are the ones we are facing. We are repairing those that can be repaired or replacing those that are bad.
“The floor is so dirty that you can hardly see the terrazzo anymore. So we are going to professionally wash the floor with machines to remove the dirt that has stuck on for so long.”
After the redemption work, Dr Ajose said the old girls intend to educate the teachers and workers of the school on hygiene and maintenance.
“On the first working day of resumption, we intend to spend the whole day on health educationfor the teachers and students. The students are a reflection of their teachers. The environment the teachers live in is no better than that of the students. The teachers’ living area is just as bad.
“We are going to talk about hygiene and health education, and how to maintain the facilities. We will make the students feel personal responsibility for the items in their vicinity so they treat them with care,” she said.
