THE northern region of Malaita has experienced a drop in sickness related to open defecation practises in the community.
Director of Malaita Provincial Health Authority Dr Hendry Kako highlighted this at the national sustainable sanitation plan inception workshop early this week in Auki.
The workshop is discussed the Community Led Total Sanitation (CTLS) program which is supported by UNICEF, Caritas and Government.
Dr Kako expressed that it’s a welcoming news to learn that since the CLTS program was rolled out in north Malaita it has resulted in a positive health record for Malu’u mini-hospital.
He said Malu’u health centre has experienced a huge decrease of patients affected by sicknesses from the impact of open defecation practises.
“That result is an improvement and achievement not only for medical authority but communities who are now adopting the CLTS model,” he said.
He said the results really help save the Malaita health authority by reducing the expenses for medical and health resources in the province.
However, Dr Kako said that it’s sad to hear news about some non-sense people who still not respecting the surrounding areas in towns and communities by practising open defecation at the overhead bridge at China town.
“Those people need to change their attitude and mindset to respect the surrounding community environment,” Dr Kako said.
He reiterated that open defecation is the source of sickness such as red eye, skin disease and diarrhea.
He said those sickness are caused by small germs breed from human waste and transported to food by flies.
He encourages community to adopt the ways to discourage the open defecation practises by constructing No Open Defecation (NOD) toilets in the community.
A total of 22 communities in North Malaita are now declared NODs.
By SOLOMON LOFANA
In Auki
