Bananas, pigs and trees: how cost recovery planning helps schools to maintain and improve their WASH services

Developing and implementing a cost recovery plan as part of school WASH programmes was introduced in 2017 as part of the Simavi WASH & Learn programme in Uganda and Tanzania. In July 2025, eight years later, I visited two schools together with partner organisations HEWASA and JESE to gain a better understanding of the impact the cost recovery tool has made.

Cost Recovery Planning

Schools adopt the Cost Recovery Planning (CRP) tool developed by Simavi to map out how they will fund ongoing WASH needs such as maintenance of water and sanitation facilities, soap and cleaning materials. Every term, school leaders and community members review the CRP, track income and expenditure and make informed decisions together.

Empowering schools

Each school develops its own diversified income base, making schools and their teachers active agents in creating opportunities and fostering ownership. As Richard Alituha from JESE explained: ‘What we do is empower schools to do things themselves. We have given them the training and now we don’t need to come to these schools anymore, because they are taking it forward themselves.’

Rainwater harvesting tanks

At St. John’s Yerya Primary School in Kabarole district, Peter Kusemererwa, teacher and patron of the school WASH club, has been involved since the start of the programme five years ago. ‘We have achieved so much since the programme started’, Peter Kusemererwa told me. ‘We were able to install rainwater harvesting tanks and later, the national water and sewerage corporation donated a water tank that provides safe drinking water for all our pupils.' The donation, in recognition of the hard work of the WASH club, is a great example of of how the programme encourages other stakeholders to join the efforts. 

Kusemererwa showed us the well-maintained and safe latrines for boys and girls. ‘The cost recovery plan helps us to pay for all this. We have a banana plantation, we raise pigs and we grow trees which we sell as firewood.’ The waste from the latrines and the pigs is used as fertilizer for the banana plantation. ‘It is giving us great yields, which we sell on the market and use for school lunches.’

Entrepreneurship

At Karugaya Primary School, a school in the Bunyangabu district, I witnessed various forms of entrepreneurship. Head teacher Josephine Kemigisa, was happy to show us around the extensive gardens of the school with sweet potatoes, cassava, beans, maize and mango trees. The school also extended its banana plantation, which has become an important source of income.

Sanitary pads and underwear

Now there is clean water available on the school grounds. ‘We used to get dirty water from down the stream where the cows and pigs were also drinking from’, Josephine Kemigisa told me. Sanitation services have also been improved. The latrines, separate for boys and girls, are regularly emptied. The girls have their own, well-maintained washing area, which even provides sanitary pads and underwear.

Maintenance is paid with the money earned by selling produce on the market. ‘We also use that money to buy other things, for example garden tools and cooking oil for the school lunches’, Josephine Kemigisa explained. ‘Our teachers and pupils now look very healthy because there is a lot of food. We also installed electricity and painted murals.’ As a result the enrolment more than doubled to 841 pupils today.

Increasing income

The school buys materials to make sanitary pads for the girls and to produce liquid soap. Josephine explains that money is also invested in repairs and beautifying the school grounds. Over recent years, the income has increased steadily. A small percentage of the budget is provided by the parents and by the government.

Plans for improvement

There are still a lot of plans for improvement. ‘In five years’ time our school will look like a city school’, joked head teacher Josephine. ‘My dream is that all Ugandan schools will look like ours in the future. Maybe it is not possible, but I wish all of them would at least have good latrines and safe water.'

Proud of this school

Peter Kusemererwa from St. John’s Yerya Primary School told me that he shares the same dream. ‘We, as teachers of St. John’s Yerya Primary School, are proud of this school because of all the things we have done: the flower garden, the tree project, the banana plantation. The children are well fed, they are playing, they are learning. I don’t want to be transferred to any other school.’

Active agents of change

Looking back, what has really stood out for me is how the Cost Recovery Planning tool makes schools and teachers active agents of change. It not only creates opportunities and ownership, but has also proved to be a unique strength of the WASH & Learn programme in ensuring that infrastructure and investments remain sustainable.

Make a lasting difference

What struck me most during my visits was that the impact went beyond the facilities: the schools felt cleaner, the teachers were well-informed and committed, and the pupils enjoyed a more positive and pleasant school experience. It shows how a practical tool for cost recovery planning can make a truly lasting difference.