SPC Geoscience Division

WASH

Monday, 14 June 2010 12:13 administrator
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Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

The Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme promotes the use of appropriate technologies and approaches for domestic water supply and sanitation issues through awareness raising, demonstrating best practices and advocacy. This includes rainwater harvesting and mainstreaming gender and community participation in water supply and sanitation. Increasing interest and support by donors and other organisations on the critical issue of water and sanitation has resulted in a large number of overlapping interventions. Ensuring that work carried out is well coordinated, in order to optimise outputs and avoid duplication, has therefore become increasingly important. Partners have been mobilised to coordinate activities through the Pacific WASH Coalition, including coordinated responses in times of natural disasters through the Pacific Humanitarian Team.

Last Updated on Sunday, 20 June 2010 14:21  


Newsflash

A recent outbreak of typhoid in Kiribati highlights how water borne diseases continue to be a major threat in the Pacific islands, especially in low-lying atolls. The capital island of Kiribati, Tarawa, has also received almost no rainfall over the last three months, putting additional stress on limited water supplies.

However, recent actions by Kiribati to put in place a National Sanitation Policy means it is showing the rest of the Pacific the way forward to address these problems.

Mr Riteti Maninraka, Secretary of the Ministry of Public Works and Utilities, said that having a National Sanitation Policy and Implementation Plan in place should provide direction on how the nation will work with the community and development partners to help solve its sanitation problems in Tarawa and the country’s outer islands.