The Life-Cycle Costs of School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Access in Kenyan Primary Schools

Alexander, Kelly T.; Mwaki, Alex; Adhiambo, Dorothy; Cheney-Coker, Malaika; Muga, Richard; Freeman, Matthew C.

doi:10.3390/ijerph13070637

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The Life-Cycle Costs of School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Access in Kenyan Primary Schools

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CARE USA, 151 Ellis St. NE, Atlanta, GA 30307, USA

Department of Environmental Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA

CARE Kenya, Mucai Road P.O. Box 43864-GPO, Nairobi 00100, Kenya

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Department of Health Sciences, Great Lakes University of Kisumu, P.O. Box 2224, Kisumu 40100, Kenya

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

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Current email address: [email protected].

Academic Editor: Paul B. Tchounwou

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(7), 637; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13070637

Received: 11 April 2016 / Revised: 20 May 2016 / Accepted: 15 June 2016 / Published: 27 June 2016

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Abstract

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programs in schools can increase the health, dignity and comfort of students and teachers. Understanding the costs of WASH facilities and services in schools is one essential piece for policy makers to utilize when budgeting for schools and helping to make WASH programs more sustainable. In this study we collected data from NGO and government offices, local hardware shops and 89 rural primary schools across three Kenyan counties. Current expenditures on WASH, from school and external (NGO, government, parent) sources, averaged 1.83 USD per student per year. After reviewing current expenditures, estimated costs of operations and maintenance for bringing schools up to basic WASH standards, were calculated to be 3.03 USD per student per year. This includes recurrent costs, but not the cost of installing or setting up WASH infrastructure, which was 18,916 USD per school, for a school of 400 students (4.92 USD per student, per year). These findings demonstrate the need for increases in allocations to schools in Kenya, and stricter guidance on how money should be spent on WASH inputs to enable all schools to provide basic WASH for all students. View Full-Text

Keywords: life-cycle cost; school; WASH; sustainability

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

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Alexander, K.T.; Mwaki, A.; Adhiambo, D.; Cheney-Coker, M.; Muga, R.; Freeman, M.C. The Life-Cycle Costs of School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Access in Kenyan Primary Schools. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13, 637. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13070637

AMA Style

Alexander KT, Mwaki A, Adhiambo D, Cheney-Coker M, Muga R, Freeman MC. The Life-Cycle Costs of School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Access in Kenyan Primary Schools. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2016; 13(7):637. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13070637

Chicago/Turabian Style

Alexander, Kelly T., Alex Mwaki, Dorothy Adhiambo, Malaika Cheney-Coker, Richard Muga, and Matthew C. Freeman. 2016. "The Life-Cycle Costs of School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Access in Kenyan Primary Schools" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 13, no. 7: 637. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13070637

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The Life-Cycle Costs of School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Access in Kenyan Primary Schools

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