By William Ating – Torit
UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene specialist, Michael Banja, is advising communities in Eastern Equatoria State to construct pit latrines in their homes.
He says, with the coming of rains, many people may be exposed to infections due to open defecation.
Banja encourages those without latrines in their homes to prioritize and include digging pits in their day to day activities for a healthy environment.
“I know our communities are now engaged especially now the rain is coming they will be going for cultivation and other things, but if they can have some little time even if you dig a quarter of a meter per day after a week you will go some meters deep, so am encouraging the community members let them not give up and let them also cooperate with the agency and the government that comes to talk to them Let them listen and am also saying let the chiefs ,women and youth groups be active in implementing the community led total sanitation in Eastern Equatoria”, he appeals.
A hygiene promoter, Mary Nyoka Federico, emphasizes that many diseases come as a result of poor hygiene and sanitation.
She is encouraging every household to construct its own latrine instead of open defecating.
“If there is no rubbish and the community is clean, then there will be no sickness and there will be no mosquitoes, cholera will not affect you anyhow. This is what we are talking about, we should clean our areas and construct latrines in our households one by one”, Nyoka asks.
The speakers made their comments to Radio Emmanuel during the launch of community led total sanitation guidelines in Torit last week.