WaterAid on Monday this week joined partners and other agencies to call on the Government to deliver on promises to strengthen the health care systems in Sierra Leone.
A press conference was held in Freetown to mark world water day at Berwick Street in Freetown.
Two years on after the Ebola epidemic, serious deficiencies remain in access to water and sanitation and hygiene in communities with a rising risk of another pandemic.
According to the Programme Manager of WaterAid Transboundary, Christian Kekura the terrible suffering of the people in Sierra Leone during the ebola crisis has a high risk of being repeated in another disease epidemic.
He said “if we do not see actions to improve water, sanitation and hygiene practices other outbreaks may occur within the shortest possible time.”
He said basic provisions of water and sanitation are the first line of defence against any infectious disease.
A recent survey conducted by Washnet and UNICEF 37.4 of people in Sierra Leone do not have access to water and 86.7 lack access to proper sanitation.
According to the report out of 171 latrines in health care facilities across the country 71 are not functional.
WaterAid programme manager said the situation is grime in rural areas where open defecation is common with few pit latrines.
He said many people also access water from contaminated sources.
Around 315,000 children die each year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by dirty water and poor sanitation. That’s almost 900 children each day, or one child every two minutes.
Over 650 million people (around one in ten) are without safe water and 2.3 billion people (around one in three) live without improved sanitation around the world a WaterAid release stated.
WaterAid is currently working in five districts in Sierra Leone installed 1,490 water and sanitation facilities benefiting some 50,000 households.
We are calling for accelerated efforts to achieve goal 6 of the sustainable development goals by 2030,” WaterAid programme manager urged.
Wednesday August 10, 2016