Untreated Water Causing Health Problems to School Children in Saint Margaret’s Village
In the village of Saint Margaret’s located on the Hummingbird Highway, school children are being sent home from classes complaining of stomach pains. There are concerns that the water has been making the young students ill. The villagers get potable drinking water from a stream; but it is untreated and contaminated. At least fifty children have been sick; this morning a hook worm was found in the drinking water prompting the school to reach out to our newsroom. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
There is an issue of contaminated water in Saint Margaret’s Village in Cayo South. The village, which has a population of about one thousand four hundred persons, is located about twenty miles from Belmopan on the Hummingbird Highway. For some time now, the villagers have been having issues with the tap water that enters their homes and recently, the students at the Saint Margaret’s Primary School have been getting ill.
Carolyn Bardalez
Carolyn Bardalez, Acting Principal, St. Margaret’s Primary School
“A lot of children are getting sick at our school. From December we are having children with stomach issues and so we had about approximately fifty students that have these issues with stomach off and on. We had two this morning that went home; we had to send home two because they had really severe stomach problems so we sent them to the hospital.”
Three hundred and fifty students are currently enrolled at the institution; they are from both Saint Margaret’s and Armenia Villages. Approximately fifty students have been sent home because they became sick after imbibing the tap water; about half of that number was in this semester alone since January seventh, less than two weeks ago. This morning, the students found a hook worm in the tap water and brought it to the attention of Acting Principal Carolyn Bardalez.
Carolyn Bardalez
“A student brought the worm from home to show us that that came from out the top from their home and so it is alarming to us that probably that’s affecting the children. For lunch breaks we had children drinking the tap water. Our school has a filtered system, but children still take their bottles to the top in the schools that is not being filtered. So we noticed that after they drank the water, they would come to the office and say Miss I am very ill; my stomach is hurting so bad. And then I would have to contact their parents and give them pepto bismol to help with the stomach problem until the parent arrives and take the children to the hospital.”
A similar report was made back in November after the Ministry of Health, through its Public Health Unit, reported an increased number of persons accessing health services for related illnesses. The chairman of the village was contacted today for the issue to be addressed. As it currently stands, there is a stream that is used to source water for the village. But it is exposed to the elements; a manmade dam is placed with a pipe to which a filter is attached.
Jose Cerna, Chairman, St. Margaret’s Village Council
“The water comes by stream, it comes by gravity to the village. But we don’t have any chlorinator. We just clean it every two weeks; the water system came from a stream and it goes on to the village. We have a filter, but it doesn’t ensure that the water is clean. And the children, whole at home, they drink that water.”
Jose Cerna
But what about the established water board in the village? Its chairman is David Romero, who confirmed to the acting principal today that the open water source has not been chlorinated or treated for some time now. So what is to be done in the interim?
Carolyn Bardalez
“I contacted Mister Alpuche from the Western Regional as the health director there and he said that we need to ensure that the water is chlorinated in the village because as far as he knows, it’s not being chlorinated.”
Jose Cerna
“Right now we don’t have any good treatment because there is an issue with the water board. With the system, before they were charging three dollars monthly for all of the village. But now, after that that the local government decide to put the group of the water board and the villagers are not agreeing and that’s why they stop paying the water.”
The priority at this time is the health of the students as well as the villagers at home. So how can the issue be addressed?
Jose Cerna
“We are asking the government to help us with all those things right there and maybe we could work better in our dams of the water.”
Carolyn Bardalez
“I would like for it to be resolved. I would like to work with everybody: the chairman of the village, the chairman of the water board and our public health officer that comes and check the water to ensure that we have clean and safe water for the children.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
