ALIGEGEO Provincial Secondary School in Malaita Province is closing down its doors in the next two weeks as a result of the ongoing water crisis affecting the school for the last 10 years.
The source supplying water to the entire school was diverted by natural causes leaving nothing to pump into the water supply system.
Currently, the school’s 550 boarding students together with the teaching staff are relying heavily on other alternative sources such as underground wells and rain water.
Students have to walk everyday to water sources in surrounding villages to fetch drinking water and for bathing.
The situation has created so much inconvenience to the academic performance of students while at the same time created health problems as a result of poor hygiene and sanitation.
This week, the school’s Principal Javin Rukia said his administration has been putting every effort to address the situation but they could not fix it because it needs a much larger intervention from responsible authorities such as the provincial and national governments or even our donor partners.
“This is a very sad and critical situation for one of our premier secondary schools and I would like to make this public call to our responsible authorities to quickly intervene,” he said.
Mr Rukia said his administration is running out of options and the only one that is left is to close the school up to a time the problem is resolved.
“We are looking at sending our students home in the next two weeks,” Mr Rukia warned.
The Principal acknowledged the support by the surrounding communities by allowing students’ to access their water sources but said the huge number of students using the sources on daily basis added further pressure on these sources.
Aligegeo PSS was the first State owned National Secondary School formerly known as King George Sixth (KGVI) prior to Independence.
Back then, the school has produced some of the country’s finest leaders such as the two former Prime Ministers, the late Solomon Mamaloni and the late Sir Peter Kenilorea.
