Lae meet calls for K2mil WaSH funding

By GLORIA BAUAI
A RECENT conference in Lae, Morobe, last week has recommended for a separate funding for the water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) programme.
More than 20 persons attended the three-day meeting.
Resolutions reached noted that the K20-million given to health under the District and Provincial Service Improvement Fund was not enough to carry out tangible WaSH programmes throughout PNG.
Those that attended included representatives from the various provincial and district administrations and the provincial health authorities throughout the Momase region.
The wanted the Governors’ Conference to take on this call and push for a separate K2 million WaSH budget in Parliament.
They said WaSH was a cross-cutting issue and had to be treated with priority.
They also wanted clarity on which department or ministry WaSH was parked under.
Participants also acknowledged that resourcing came with better workable planning and, for this, reliable data was paramount.
The Information Management System (IMS) meeting also emphasised on bottom-up planning, with training aimed at enhancing participants’ capacity where they were introduced to WaSH IMS, mWater data collection surveys, steps in forming WaSH committees, undertaking baseline surveys, and developing five-year district WaSH plans.
The conference also heard that climate change remained a biggest challenge in implementing WaSH programmes.