The provision of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme in schools has been a major concern in Choma District and has received significant attention in terms of policy consideration and dissemination with the aim of improving health in the learning environment. The implementation of the programme has not matched the concerns, which have affected programme effectiveness and consumer satisfaction. This study evaluated the implementation of WASH in schools of Choma District of Southern Province of Zambia in 2013. The study objectives were to assess the role of the Zambian government and guidelines for implementation of the School WASH programme. It also determined benefits schools received from government’s support and evaluated the performance of the School Health and Nutrition (SHN) policy in the implementation process. A stratified random sample of 65 schools which comprised Secondary, Basic (Primary) and Community schools was used for data collection. Implementation of the programme was assessed by questionnaire based interviews and observations. Purposive selection of key informants as respondents for the interviews was also used. Views of the different groups on the implementation of WASH in schools were obtained by group discussion with pupils, female and male teachers.
Results obtained indicated that funding was limited especially among rural schools. Despite being fully known at the district level, the programme was not yet introduced in most schools and the government ran a parallel programme the School Health and Nutrition (SHN), which did not fully integrate WASH activities. It is in this context that the research found that there were no clear guidelines on the implementation of WASH in schools and the programme was largely an Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) or cooperating partners’ supported-activity. This conflicted with the role of government as an implementer. Additionally, implementation of the programme was poor due to uncoordinated roles and limited funding, yielding more challenges that led to the failure for the programme to realise desired benefits. Similarly, the SHN policy was poorly implemented in schools in regard to the set objectives. It is concluded that, implementation of WASH in schools of Choma District was limited because the Ministry of Education, Science and Vocational Training and Early Education had good plans only on paper on how to effectively implement programme in Choma and Zambia in general. The plans were not translated into the implementation of the programme as there was no tangible evidence of the existence of the programme in schools. It was therefore recommended that a School WASH policy needed to be formulated so as to guide the implementation of the programme. Similarly, more funds ought to be committed towards the programme by the government. The Ministry of Education, Science and Vocational Training and Early Education’s infrastructure plan should be revisited to include issues of water, sanitation and hygiene during construction of schools and classrooms should have adequate WASH facilities in line pupils’ enrolments.