BY LORETTA B MANELE
Wanderer Bay Community High School in West Guadalcanal lacks water supply and proper sanitation facilities; a challenge that has been persistent for the past few years.
John Paul, Chairman of the boarding school shared this with Island Sun last month.
He said these two issues pose as major challenges for the school.
Paul explained that years back World Vision assisted them with water supply by constructing a dam.
However, he said the dam not too long ago is not in a good state and although water reaches the school from the dam it does not cater to the whole school; and when there is no water supply at all, the situation worsens.
Paul stressed that this has affected students, causing them to arrive late to class and school activities because of the water supply issue.
“This is because they have to walk far to access water causing them to delay in arriving to class and other school activities,” he said.
Paul mentioned that there is a stream nearby that students go to but walking to and from the stream and then preparing for classes takes up time.
A river is also said to be a distance from the school but as people live nearby the river, he said it is not clean by the time it reaches down to where the students are.
Speaking of sanitation facilities, Paul said Live and Learn came and helped the school with sanitation facilities but it is not the kind where you have flush toilets he added.
With the water supply issue currently facing the school, he said this in turn is also putting a strain on the sanitation facilities which also need improvement.
Timothy, an English and Social Science teacher at the school from Choiseul province also spoke about how these challenges is affecting their students.
In an interview with Island Sun at the school, he said 2025 marks his 6th year teaching at Wanderer Bay Community High School.
Like Paul, Timothy is singing the same tune.
“One main challenge we face at the school is water supply and sanitation,” he said.
Timothy said this has been an issue for the past 3 to 4 years and has caused a lot of disturbances especially for their students as well as for teachers.
“This is a boarding school so every program that takes place follows a certain timeframe.
“But because of the issue of water, it affects our school programs.
“It has caused us to delay in attending classes on time especially during the mornings, students usually come late to classes, are late to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“So, this water supply issue has been dragging time and costs us our school programs,” he said.
Timothy said although there is a stream there it also requires time that is spent to get water delaying a student’s preparation for classes.
He points out that such issues are huge and can even lead to the school closing down.
Timothy calls on the provincial government, national government or aid donors to assist the school and help them to address these issues.
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