SPC aids Health Dept with tablets

THE Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) will be providing 2,220 quality water-testing tablets and other supplies to the Department of Health to help fight the cholera outbreak in Papua New Guinea.
Port Moresby SPC will present the tablets and supplies to Enoch Posanai, the executive manager of public health at the department, a press statement released from the SPC headquarters in Noumea, New Caledonia, read last Friday.
“The supplies will enable the department to carry out more than 1,700 water chlorination level tests and 500 water pH tests,” the statement read, adding that contaminated water and food were the main routes of transmission of cholera that was spreading in PNG.
The donations would ensure that chlorinated water was safe to use.
However, tests could only be used in urban and pre-urban areas where people were using chlorinated water supplies. 
According to the statement, water testing could provide valuable information for planning future water supply improvements in the country.
The testing supplies were requested by the Health Department through the national cholera task force.
SPC procured them with support from the Australian and New Zealand government agencies for international development (AusAID and NZAID).