A constant struggle for water and dignity
Robin Mae Magangat and Basilius Kris Cahyanto
Claire, a teacher at Paibeta Community High School in Savo Island, Solomon Islands, begins her day not just preparing lessons, but preparing for a challenge no educator should have to face—finding a way for her students to maintain dignity in a school without enough water.
At Paibeta, the school’s four rainwater tanks don’t just serve over 2,000 students and 15 staff members, but also the surrounding community. When they run dry, students go thirsty, hygiene suffers, and student learning is disrupted as the search for water takes priority.
But water isn’t the only issue.
The school doesn’t have proper toilets. Students and teachers alike are forced to use the beachfront as their toilet, stripping them of privacy, dignity, and hygiene.
Across the Solomon Islands, many schools face similar struggles—where a lack of safe sanitation, running water, and hygiene facilities puts students at risk.
At the Kalaka School area, more than 300 students and staff depend on just two water tanks. Like in Paibeta, students use the beachfront as a toilet because their only toilet block rusted away due to saltwater exposure.
Wilson, the headmaster of Kalaka Primary School, knew his school faced sanitation challenges, but it wasn’t until he attended a UNICEF and Live & Learn supported Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Training that he realized the full extent of the problem.
The Cost of Poor Sanitation in a Changing Climate
The Solomon Islands is increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events, with stronger cyclones, prolonged droughts, and unpredictable flooding disrupting daily life. For many schools, this means empty water tanks, unsanitary conditions, and students struggling to learn in unsafe environments.
With over only 31 per cent of schools having safe toilets, many children are left without even the most basic facilities for health and hygiene. Open defecation remains widespread, with 45 per cent of the population practicing it in 2021.
A Turning Point
UNICEF, with support from the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), is constructing new WASH facilities in 26 schools , ensuring that students have safe toilets and access to clean drinking water.
At Paibeta Community High School, Claire, Richard and their colleagues are preparing for a future where students no longer have to walk 30 metres away from the school to fetch water or face the humiliation of open defecation.
These efforts are not just about building toilets and providing clean water, they are about changing lives. By equipping schools with the knowledge, skills, and climate-resilient WASH infrastructure they need, children and teachers can finally break free from the daily struggle for basic hygiene and dignity.
For Claire, Wilson, Richard, and thousands of children across the Solomon Islands, this is the moment they’ve been waiting for, a step toward lasting change that will shape generations to come.