AMERICA/BOLIVIA – Classrooms under water, 10 toilets and no water for more than 1000 pupils

Cochabamba (Agenzia Fides) – Damp classrooms, muddy walls falling to pieces await school children in Cochabamba. “There is more rain water inside the school than outside” say the parents of children at the school Eduardo Ocampo Moscoso di Cochabamba (Bolivia). The water filters through the roof, the walls and the floors of the school buildings built over 50 years ago. Reports sent to Fides, say the local authorities admitted that of the school’s 28 classrooms, 16 are in very poor condition, and only 12 classrooms of a new wing soon to be ready are in good condition . There are 10 toilets but no water for 1,114 pupils and the washbasins are unstable. Similar conditions are found in the toilets of kindergartens, no water and the sanitary equipment is adult size. When the rain is heavy there is no school, the roads turn to mud and sewage, the children come home with soaked school books and, at this early age, many fall ill. (AP) (25/2/2014 Agenzia Fides)