Tuesday, November 08, 2011

‘Only 39% of rural folks have clean water'

By SALLY POKITON UPNG journalism student

ONLY 39% of people in the rural areas have access to clean water, Department of Planning and Monitoring deputy secretary Joe Kaupa says, The National reports.
Speaking during a two-day conference on rural water supply and sanitation programme policy, Kaupa said it was time that a specific water project be developed.
He said the European Union partnership programme with the rural water supply and sanitation programme and development partners needed to come up with an effective policy that would cover the usage, maintenance, sustainability and commercialisation of clean water in rural areas.
Kaupa thanked the European Union for making a provision of K75 million that would contribute towards the government’s meeting of Millennium Development Goals on the provision of clean water.
He said that by the end of 2012, 500,000 people in the country would have access to clean water and a target of reaching 75% of the population by 2030.
Public Health executive manager Enoch Posanai said the government’s objective was to improve health to an affordable and acceptable degree.
“Ill health is a direct condition of the physical environment.
“To be healthy, PNG must have a clean and safe water supply,” Posanai said.
Posanai said in order to achieve its goal to be a healthy nation as stated in the Vision 2050, government had to start fixing its health system and creating a national water policy was the way forward.
Water PNG chief execu­tive officer Patrick Amini said a strategic plan on the water supply and sanitation development plan 2006-2015 was in place, with completed development projects in Bereina and Kwikila while construction was under way in Maprik, Finschhafen and Kainantu

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