28 Oct 2014

Batawana deputy paramount chief, Kgosi Pringle Dithapo has urged the public to join hands with the government and assist in the prevention of preventable diseases.

He said the health systems were already burdened with non-communicable and communicable diseases hence the need to assist by taking responsibility of their own health as that would benefit the community. 

Kgosi Dithapo pleaded with the community to promote hand washing with soap to reduce diseases. He said they should promote the spirit of working together to improve public health in the country.

He said the ministry through DHMT has a mandate to save lives and requested the DHMT and other partners to come up with a monitoring and evaluation tool to track hand washing in districts and Botswana as a whole.

Kgosi Dithapo said that the Ngamiland district is vast and primarily rural adding that the district is still faced with challenges of open defecation and poor wash behaviour in most of the villages.

Kgosi Dithapo also cited examples of excellence in the district following the work of the USAID-funded Southern African Regional Environmental Programme (SAREP). 

He said SAREP has been working with four schools in the district and have completed a water, sanitation and hygiene education programme at all the four schools.

“I have been informed that the message of good hygiene and sanitation has been spread through schools and this has resulted in better hand washing, sanitation facilities, active health clubs, improved interaction between pupils and school management. 

We welcome this partnership in our communities as it reduces the burden of work on government,” he said.

Kgosi Dithapo noted that SAREP has put more focus in the North West district communities as it has been working with a programme called “Community-Led-Total-Sanitation. 

The method, he said has proven to be successful worldwide and has resulted in over 100 households building their own toilets and taking responsibility for their own health. ENDS