SANITATION WEEK: POOR WASTE MANAGEMENT POSE THREAT TO CLEAN ENVIRONMENT IN ARUA CENTRAL

By Anslem Ojaru

Arua city

Kenya ward in Arua central division is still grappling with poor sanitation which has given rise to poor waste disposal and inadequate sanitary coverage in the area with many families sharing pit latrines due to the lack of a sewer system.

Matata Asiku the coordinator of VHT says the ward is over population poses a threat to good hygiene.

“The ratio of the health facility in the home is alarming so in Kenya you find in one plot you find there are five or seven households so these seven households are using one latrine so the ratio here is 1:3 or 1:4 so this is the ratio it needs us either to do more.”

 Razaka Kasim a VHT member says sanitary coverage still remains a challenge depites campaigns by health officials.

“We have been coming to check the water they use for data collection, immunization, we also check their latrines and the general sanitation in the homes and, its true sometimes we find homes with very poor hygiene while a few are okay but when we become very serious over sanitation issues and try to engage them, they are always ask about our authority and identity and since we don’t have tags we at times fear engaging them in the health talks.”

Candiru Nehma a resident says there is a gap between the leaders and the community who feel they are not well guided about sanitation issues.

“This area of ours if we don’t maintain its sanitation it can cause us diseases but also our leader do not give us adequate guidance on where we should put the rubbish, they don’t show us the place for dumping waste and so we don’t know how to help the situation, if this is put right then the place will be clean   if this was done earlier then the situation would not have been how it is now. But now we have marked the areas where we shall be putting the waste and we are going to put it in action to see that crubu becomes clean.”

This come after health officials in the division carried out the cleaning activity in line with the sanitation week aimed at promoting hygiene, improving and raising awareness about sanitation practices to prevent the spread of preventable diseases.
 

Written by admin