948,000 in urban and peri urban areas have no access to sanitation – NWASCO

20/11/2013

Water reforms have produced significant impacts on development, including improvements to drinking water access.jpg

The National Water and Sanitation Council (NWASCO) says nine hundred and forty eight thousand people have no access to sanitation in urban and peri urban areas.
NWASCO public relations Manager Rose Tembo says there is need to scale up interventions to and improve access to sanitation.

Ms. Tembo notes that with the current low sanitation coverage of fifty seven point three percent in urban and peri urban areas, adequate investment for providing basic sanitation remains cardinal if the country is to witness a turnaround in the current sanitation coverage.

Ms. Tembo adds that if the country has to meet the millennium development goal of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, there is need to improve and scale up interventions.

She notes that unless the appropriate measures to scale up and improve sanitation are put in place it is unlikely that the country will meet the MDG goal target on sanitation.

She has further called on all stakeholders, local authorities, cooperating partners, private sector, NGOs and the government to act now for a sustainable improved sanitation.

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