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NGO Forum's Workshop on Promotion
of Total Sanitation in Tea Gardens Held
With
a view to upholding the real situation in
tea gardens and identifying the strategic
issues in relation to ensuring sustainable
hygienic sanitation, the Upazila Administration,
Sreemangal and NGO Forum for Drinking Water
Supply & Sanitation jointly organized
a Workshop on ‘Promotion of Total Sanitation
in Tea Gardens’ on 19 February 2008 at Bangladesh
Tea Research Institute (BTRI) Hall Room,
Sreemangal, Maulvibazar. MAC-Bangladesh,
Sreemangal provided organizing support in
the Workshop.
A paper on Water and Sanitation Situation
in Tea Gardens was presented in the Workshop
by Joseph Halder, Chief, Advocacy &
Information, NGO Forum upholding the present
water, sanitation and hygiene situation
in the tea gardens.
The Deputy Commissioner of Moulvibazar Md.
Alkama Siddiqui was present as Chief Guest
and addressed the Workshop. Mr. S.M.A. Rashid,
Executive Director, NGO Forum Welcomed the
participants. Representatives from concerned
government organizations, LGIs, tea garden
authorities, NGOs, CBOs, tea labourers and
mass-media participated in the Workshop
and recommended for coordinated efforts
to ensure WatSan and hygiene promotion in
tea gardens. NGO Forum believes that the
Workshop will contribute in sensitizing
all concerned to take necessary steps making
National Sanitation Campaign ‘Sanitation
for All by 2010’ a success through covering
the tea gardens with 100% sanitation.
The highlighting issues of the Workshop
are as follows:
• The Chief Guest (DC)
urged the UNO of Sreemangal to form to committee
with the UNO as the Head and the Chairmen
of all UPs as members. The Committee will
carry out a survey on water and sanitation
facilities in labourers' houses. The committee
will meet every month and share the progress
with the DC.
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• The garden authorities
complied with the findings that the gardens
have very low water and sanitation coverage.
They declared that they will welcome external
agencies who will fend to work in the gardens
on WatSan.
The garden authorities, labourers, government
and NGOs together should work on this issues.
• The government, the garden
authorities and NGOs became sensitized that
tea labourers should be addressed with water
and sanitation facilities.
• The Chief Guest dreamt
for seeing no news on diarrhoeal death in
the tea gardens.
85
pc Brought Under
Sanitation Coverage
LGRD
and Cooperatives Adviser Mohammad Anwarul
Iqbal said the country has so far achieved
85 percent sanitation coverage, which was
only 33 percent in 2003.
Realizing the importance of sanitation for
sustainable development and poverty reduction,
the government has put special emphasis
on achieving its target of ‘Sanitation for
All by 2010’ he said while inaugurating
an exposition on water and sanitation at
the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference
Centre.
WaterAid Bangladesh an international NGO,
organized the two-day exposition titled
‘WatSan Expo 2008’ to mark the United Nations
International Year of Sanitation 2008.
The Adviser underlined
the need for making sustainable achievement
on sanitation coverage by continuing the
mass awareness programme and strengthening
the monitoring system.
We need to
identify the areas where we are still lagging
behind and pockets of unreachable regions
to make our efforts sustainable as well
as to achieve 100 percent sanitation by
2010 he said.
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NGO Forum for Drinking Water Supply &
Sanitation participated in the WatSan Expo
alongside other 31 organizations and demonstrated
a stall at the WatSan Expo. Different IEC,
BCC and audio-visual materials emphasizing
the organization profile were displayed
at the stall which attracted the attention
of the visitors. NGO Forum won the 2nd prize
for the stall demonstration.
The Independent,
5 March 2008
Launching
of the International Year of Sanitation
2008
World
Water Day 2008
in Bangladesh
UN
General Assembly has declared the Year 2008
as the International Year of Sanitation
(IYS). The objective of the Year is advocacy
and awareness raising especially in the
field of hygiene behaviour. Following the
objective of the International Year of Sanitation
(IYS) the UN selected the theme ‘Sanitation’
for the World Water Day 2008.
The Local Government Division, Ministry
of LGRD&C, NGO Forum for Drinking Water
Supply & Sanitation, The World Health
Organization, UNICEF and DFID jointly organized
the Launching of the International Year
of Sanitation 2008 and National Hand Washing
Campaign and Observance of the World Water
Day with due significance and organized
different events at Central and District
levels.
The events included Cultural Programme on
WatSan issues, TV Talk show, Rally, Symposium
and so on. In light with the theme of the
World Water Day ‘Sanitation’ the Launching
Ceremony emphasized on different aspects
of sanitation especially the importance
and proper way of hand washing and maintaining
other hygiene principles for sound health.
A paper on Objectives of International Year
of Sanitation and World Water Day was presented
by Dr. Md. Mujibur Rahman, Professor, Department
of Civil Engineering and Director, ITN-BUET
in the Workshop
Stakeholders are invited to contribute
water, sanitation & environmental news &
views to be published in the WatSan
Bulletin.
Advocacy &Information Cell |
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