Toilets to help improve hygiene

SANITATION is about behaviours, facilities and services that together provide a hygienic environment for communities, Steamships managing director Rupert Bray says.
Bray said this during the handing over of nine Sago dry toilets to Barakau villagers in Central earlier this month.
Known as the Barakau Sanitation Project between Steamships Ltd and Sago Network, the Barakau villagers now have access to improved sanitation.
The project cost K195,890.
Bray who spoke during the event said sanitation was more than just toilets.
“It is about behaviours, facilities and services that together provide a hygienic environment for communities and particularly children, allowing them to fight diseases and grow up healthy,” he said.
The project was funded from the Steamships community grants programme.
The toilets were designed by the Sago Network team in Sydney and Port Moresby in conjunction with the University of Technology and support from Consort Express Lines to ensure that the units were robust
enough to withstand cyclonic winds and be cost-efficient.
Sago Network director Rosemary Korawali said people would benefit from improved sanitation which would reduce instances of sickness such as diarrhea and dysentery.
“Through these families, education around sanitation practices adopted by the community will have a direct positive flow-on effect at a village household level,” she said.
“At a wider level, Barakau serves as a representative village for many of PNG’s coastal villages and is reflective of a village community that has taken ownership of their health by improving their sanitation
practices.”
Sago Network is a non-profit community development organisation.