Govt calls for coordinated investments in sanitation programs

Local Government and Housing Deputy, Minister Nicolas Banda

Government has called for more coordinated investment in sanitation programs in order to achieve the target for universal access to improved sanitation.

Local Government and Housing Deputy, Minister Nicolas Banda says over 2.5 million people in 68 districts in Zambia have access to improved sanitation through the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Program.

Mr. Banda says there is need for the nation to continue promoting the acts of hand washing if the country is to avoid losing children due to poor sanitary conditions.

He says government has strengthened a policy framework in improving sanitation in the country by ensuring that all people adhere to sanitation advice so as to safeguard the lives of the people.

The Deputy Minister made these remarks this afternoon at Mthudzi Village in Vubwi District in Eastern Province in Chief Pembamoyo’s chiefdom during the celebration of the second Open Defecation Free (ODF) District in Zambia.

The ODF celebration in Vubwi was celebrated alongside the Global Hand Washing Day under the theme “Raise a Hand for Hygiene”.

Speaking at the same event, Chief Pembamoyo said each of the 6, 406 households in his chiefdom had a toilet and a tip tap to enable the people wash their hands with soap or ashes after using the toilet.

Chief Pembamoyo says some villages did not have toilets but that he is impressed that his subjects heed to the call for each household to have a toilet in a move aimed at improving sanitation.

And UNICEF Representative, Gerald Mwila says improvements in hygiene must supplement access to water and sanitation, or children will continue to fall victim to easily preventable diseases like diarrhea.

Vubwi District has become the second District in Zambia and third in Africa to be declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) after Chiengi district in Luapula Province which was declared ODF in April 2015.