Only one tap for 2,571 people

This is the only tap water that caters for 2,500 students and 71 teachers from Ras Zesilas Elementary and Junior School and it is protected by a wooden box that only allows one person to collect a bottle of water at a time.

Built during Emperor Haile Silasie I’s time and named after one of his lords in the area, the school is one of the oldest formal schools south of the capital, Addis Ababa. Like most schools that started out with a few students, facilities at this 70-year-old compound are too scarce to handle the pressure of over 2,500 daily users. One tap for 2,500 students and 71 teachers, a four-room toilet block for 1,200 boys and another block for 1,300 girls is all they have got. The toilets do not have doors and that necessitated the designation of another room where girls could change sanitary pads in the privacy they need.

The only male students’ toilet

The only female students’ (left) and teachers’ toilet (right) at Ras ZeSilas Primary and Secondary School.