• Students avoid drinking water and using school toilets due to unhygienic conditions, lack of water and privacy
• Girls miss school during menstruation as facilities for changing and disposing of sanitary napkins remain inadequate
• Teachers, parents say poor maintenance and shortages of cleaning staff persist even where toilets have been built
• Clean Sri Lanka promises better school sanitation; unions say improvements have yet to materialise
• Water shortages force schools to store water, creating potential mosquito-breeding grounds amid dengue threat

Last week, when a mother of a seven-year-old child with special needs sat down to write a Facebook post about her son’s school, she was not trying to start a national conversation. She was describing something far more immediate: the distress her son endured, day after day, because his school did not have adequate toilet facilities for a child with his needs. 

Her account, written from the exhaustion of watching her child suffer in a place that was supposed to be safe for him, spread quickly, touching something raw in a country that has long told itself, and the rest of South Asia, that its sanitation coverage is a success story.

On the same day, area MPs contacted her, promising a solution for her son’s school. But as parents, teachers, and union leaders across the island would go on to explain, one child’s crisis is rarely an isolated one; it is a symptom of a problem that has persisted, largely undocumented, for years.

A problem with no current official count

The last time the Ministry of Education put a number on the scale of the crisis was at a discussion held on 14 May 2020, chaired by then Education Minister Dullas Alahapperuma and attended by education officials from the Western Province. 

At that meeting, the Minister stated that 582 schools across the country lacked water facilities, while more than 800 schools did not have adequate sanitation facilities. Six years on, there is no official, updated figure – only a picture assembled from more recent sources, which suggests the problem has not shrunk.

According to the Annual School Census Summary Report 2025, published in 2026 by the Statistics Branch of the Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka operates 10,047 Government schools – 396 national and 9,651 provincial – serving 3,747,544 students, almost evenly split between boys and girls.

However, these macro-level figures mask severe operational deficits across provincial and rural institutions. Cross-evaluations of ministry statistics and regional education zone audits indicate that roughly 1,300 State schools – concentrated primarily among Type 2, Type 3, and plantation-sector primary schools – lack functional basic sanitation infrastructure or safe waste disposal mechanisms, with toilet-to-student ratios routinely falling well below international public health guidelines.

Data from the World Health Organization (WHO)/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), which includes WASH in schools, together with the Household Survey of Drinking Water Quality conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics, show that over 20% of schools nationwide operate with limited or non-existent water services. 

Field surveys across rural districts found that 62% of students cite broken pipe connections, dry tube wells, and non-functional taps as their primary barrier to accessing drinking water during school hours and up to 88% of surveyed rural and provincial school latrines lack basic handwashing soap.

Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Ceylon Principals’ Union (CPU) General Secretary Piyasiri Fernando said that around 500 schools islandwide lacked water suitable for drinking and that a significant number of schools had no proper method of securing safe water. 

He noted that sanitation facilities remained inadequate in parts of the North Western, Uva, North Central, Eastern, and Central Provinces, as well as in roughly 20% of coastal schools, adding that even where circulars set out toilet requirements based on student numbers, some schools still fell short of those standards. Children often use the toilets that do exist in an unhygienic manner, according to him, with girls in particular largely avoiding female toilets.

Voluntary dehydration and its health toll

Faced with filthy, doorless, or waterless toilets, a significant proportion of schoolchildren resort to what public health researchers term voluntary dehydration – abstaining from drinking water throughout the school day to avoid using the premises.

Paediatricians note that chronic daily fluid restriction contributes directly to urinary tract infections, heat exhaustion, and long-term renal stress. The gendered impact is especially severe: JMP and local health survey data confirm that 26% of female students abstain from using school sanitation facilities or miss school entirely during menstruation due to a lack of running water, functional door locks, privacy, and proper waste disposal units.

A 2026 study, WASH Coverage and Awareness of Menstrual Hygiene Management Among Schoolchildren in Rural Sri Lanka, examined 500 students in the Dehiowita educational zone. It found that 43% of children use unsafe plastic bottles to carry water, 62% cited broken taps as a critical barrier to accessing water, and 54% reported that the water they did receive was inadequately treated. 

Furthermore, 88% admitted they did not use soap after using the toilet, primarily because none was available – reflected in a 78% dissatisfaction rate with sanitary facilities. Twenty-six percent of girls avoid using school latrines altogether due to safety concerns. The study also found a 91% lack of napkin disposal facilities and an 84% absence of private washing areas – failures the authors say drive absenteeism and poorer school performance, beyond the direct health risks.

Voices from the classroom

Thilini Shalwyn, a teacher in Kandy, described what she found when she was posted to a rural school. 

“There were toilets, but there was no water. Teachers who would leave their hometowns at around four in the morning to travel there had to run to nearby houses whenever they needed to use a toilet. Children at that school have told me that once they come to school, they never use the toilets because of the unbearable smell. Female students have told me that they do not attend school when they are menstruating because they have no proper place to change sanitary pads or dispose of used ones,” she said.

Shalwyn said that after she visited the school and wrote about the conditions on Facebook, a group of Facebook friends came together to help, building a dry toilet pit connected to the girls’ system for disposal of sanitary pads and repairing a broken tube well serving the boys’ toilet. 

“Until then, because they could not use the toilets, we saw some children going into the nearby forest to relieve themselves. Girls did not even have that option, and as a result, their school attendance was very poor. This is not the only school: I have seen several where the toilets were completely covered in dust from disuse.”

Parents interviewed by The Sunday Morning in different parts of the country described similar patterns. A mother in Kurunegala said that her daughter, a Grade 9 student, did not attend school when she had her period because there were no proper facilities to change sanitary napkins and no water to wash. Another mother, whose child attends a Colombo suburban school, said conditions there were no different: “My child doesn’t go to the school toilet, saying it’s very unhygienic. We’ve even paid facility fees. I spoke to the Principal about it – no use.”

A teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that even in schools with toilets and a water supply, the core problem was a lack of proper daily cleaning. 

“No matter how many toilets are built, they cannot keep them clean on their own,” she said, noting that responsibility ultimately rested on the Government supplying sanitary workers and the administration ensuring they carried out their duties. “I’ve seen many schools where sanitary workers are assigned to other tasks instead,” she said, adding that she had seen children instructed to do the cleaning themselves – something she opposed.

The policy response

The Government’s current flagship response is the education sector component of the Clean Sri Lanka programme, launched under the banner ‘Our toilets, our responsibility’. According to the President’s Media Division, the project aims to improve sanitation facilities and practices in schools by fostering a culture of cleanliness, equity, and collaboration. 

Its objectives include building a sense of responsibility among schoolchildren to maintain clean facilities, promoting shared use of sanitary facilities by teachers and students, and facilitating the inclusion of toilets designed for children with disabilities.

The project also covers safe disposal facilities for sanitary pads and encourages schools to carry out minor repairs through self-initiated efforts or local funding. Minimum requirements include functional toilets, water supply, waste disposal, and accommodation for students with special needs, alongside a stated aim of preventing hygiene-related and food-borne diseases. The approach favours positive reinforcement – rewards and recognition – over penalties.

Additional Secretary to the President Engineer S.P.C. Sugeeshwara of the Clean Sri Lanka Secretariat told The Sunday Morning that the project was ongoing: “We have recognised the need and implemented the project. The activities are still ongoing, and sanitation facilities for many schools have been established.”

In June, Prime Minister and Minister of Education Dr. Harini Amarasuriya said that Rs. 13.5 billion had been allocated in the 2026 Budget for physical resources in national schools and colleges – the highest amount ever allocated for the purpose – with a further Rs. 5 billion earmarked for school renovation. Speaking to principals of national schools in the Western Province, she said that the Government had prepared plans to expedite ongoing infrastructure and sanitation projects, with new school development projects expected to commence from 2027.

‘Nothing has materialised’: Unions

Against these official assurances, principals’ and teachers’ union leaders describe a very different reality.

CPU General Secretary Fernando said that the situation had not improved. “There has been no change since last year. Although there were talks of building new systems, nothing has happened. My school in the Chilaw area has 915 students, and the current sanitation system is not sufficient. This Government claimed it would implement this as a project, but it hasn’t materialised,” he said. 

“Recently, I was told that a modernised toilet system had been approved. Engineers came, measured the site, and said they would start, but months have passed and nothing has happened. A colleague in the Kurunegala District experienced the same.”

Fernando said the shortage extended to staff facilities. “In my school, there is only one toilet for 50–60 staff members to use. Consequently, children do not use the toilets during school hours and wait until they get home, which is a major health risk,” he said. 

“While some large national schools have five or six sanitation workers, smaller schools have none. I once had to wash the toilets myself for two days because a worker refused, which even led to a human rights case. Having one female worker for 1,000 students is simply not enough.” He added that coastal salinity often made water unusable, particularly for girls, and that many schools relied on alumni or community funding because the Government failed to provide.

Ceylon Teachers’ Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin was equally blunt: “This issue is frequently discussed and funds are even allocated, but practically, nothing happens. During a previous minister’s tenure, a project was initiated to build toilets, but the primary requirement is water. Without an adequate water supply, those systems were destroyed. Many children, especially girls, hold it in until they get home – either because the existing facilities are inadequate or because they are not clean.”

Stalin said that cleaning staff appointed to schools were often political appointees who did not perform their duties and that principals were frequently unable to direct them. “In the Western Province, when cleaning staff were appointed, the order given to principals was not to let them wash the toilets,” he said. 

On Clean Sri Lanka, he was sceptical: “It has been over one year and seven months, yet nothing is clean, which is why dengue is spreading. Governments start these projects mostly for show.”

He added that while it was valuable for children to learn to maintain their own environment, children should not be used as a substitute for a lack of proper systems, and argued that institutions responsible for school buildings should take direct ownership of maintenance.

Multiple attempts to contact Deputy Minister of Education Dr. Madhura Senevirathna were unsuccessful.

BOX:

How schools have become dengue hotspots

The chronic lack of reliable water infrastructure in schools has created an unexpected public health vector within school premises. According to National Dengue Control Unit (NDCU) special inspection drive reports from the Ministry of Health, nationwide multi-district school inspections found that 31–41% of inspected educational premises harboured active Aedes aegypti mosquito breeding grounds.

Public Health Inspectors’ Union of Sri Lanka President Upul Rohana, speaking to The Sunday Morning, attributed this matter directly to infrastructure workarounds. 

To manage intermittent municipal water supplies or failing tube wells, he said, schools accumulated standing water in open plastic drums, buckets, and unsealed cement tanks. Combined with clogged roof gutters, broken flush cisterns, and empty classrooms over long weekends, these unmanaged water reserves match the 7–10-day mosquito breeding cycle, turning schools into primary dengue hotspots.

Health authorities confirmed on Monday (20) that inspections had found the highest number of premises with dengue vector mosquito larvae in schools. 

NDCU Acting Director Dr. Kapila Kannangara said that mosquito-breeding sites had also been identified in other public places, including factories and Government institutions. NDCU Consultant Community Physician Dr. Preshila Samaraweera said that whether dengue cases would rise further could only be determined over the next two weeks, adding that this would depend largely on whether rainfall increased or decreased during that period.

Addressing a Cabinet media briefing this week, Health Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa said that managing the dengue threat within the school system required a shift from periodic cleaning to a culture of continuous vigilance. Addressing the current situation, he noted that while national-level measures were in place, the nature of mosquito breeding demanded more than a ‘one-off’ intervention.

“Dengue is not something where you can just go out one day, clean everything, and the problem is solved,” he said, explaining that ongoing rains meant larvae bred rapidly in multiple locations, requiring “constant and continuous attention” to prevent new outbreaks.

On school safety specifically, Dr. Jayatissa said that schools must be as proactive as households and other State institutions in identifying breeding grounds, noting that larvae were often found in the smallest, most unexpected places. “People should pay attention even to the smallest places, such as a small piece of a toy or even bamboo stalks,” he warned.

While there are signs the outbreak trend is beginning to reverse in many districts, the Minister cautioned that the risk remained high for the immediate future. “The risk remains for another three weeks, until mid-August. Therefore, these cleaning activities must be done continuously.” He also acknowledged the efforts of those who had used holidays for cleaning programmes, and encouraged school communities to maintain this momentum to ensure student sanitation.