Schools Providing Clean Water Report Less Children off Sick

A new study looked at the impact of safe drinking water provision on absenteeism rates in school children and found that the number of school sick days dropped significantly.

Researchers at the University of East Anglia found that people in developing countries can overcome poverty if they are provided free safe drinking water in schools. This is the first study to examine the impact of safe drinking water in schools and a reduction in absenteeism.

For this they focused on absentee rates in eight different schools in the region of Cambodia. Among the eight schools, half were provided drinking water and the other half did not get any water. The study spanned over 26 weeks and was divided in two sections, one bit of it was done during the dry season and other was done during the rainy season. They finally looked at the absentee records of over 3520 children.

The researchers noticed that during the dry period, children who had no access to clean water, were nearly 2.5 times more likely to be absent from school than the other children who had access to clean water.

Prof Paul Hunter from UEA's Norwich Medical School said, "We focused our intervention on local communities that have poor access to clean drinking water. Each participating school was given a 20-litre bottle of clean drinking water per class each day. We found lower absenteeism in the schools that received the free clean water - however this association was only seen in the dry season. During the wet season, absenteeism increased in all eight schools, which is explained by children being kept off school to help in the fields..."

He explains that in order to improve educational attainment in kids it is necessary to lower the rate of absenteeism and this even helps in alleviating poverty.

"As well as helping to reduce waterborne infectious disease, providing free drinking water helps combat dehydration. Even mild dehydration in children may be associated with poor health, and previous studies have shown that keeping well-hydrated improves cognition and energy levels in children. So providing free water in schools would improve children's general wellbeing and learning experience," explains Prof Hunter.

The study was published in the journal PLOS One.