CIBITOKE May 7th (ABP) – In collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, ADRA Burundi launched, at the headquarters of Buganda commune on Friday May 3, 2019, the project of implementation of Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach.
The aim was to sensitize residents of Buganda Commune and other parts of Cibitoke Province for the implementation of improved latrines, with a view to eradicating diseases related to dirty hands and lack of hygiene, according to Mr. Prosper Muyuku, Director in charge of the sanitation program at the ministry in charge of health.
According to ADRA Burundi data from a survey recently conducted in Buganda commune, 60% of 15,153 households visited did not have improved latrines. The situation is worrying throughout the country according to Director Muyuku, because only 21 out of 119 communes in Burundi have improved latrines overall to cut short with the phenomenon of open defecation.
According to Muyuku, Burundi is ahead of many African countries, but the situation is such that 330,000 people still practice open defecation and 6,600,000 use unimproved latrines.
Mr. Muyuku added that open defecation causes parasitic diseases and malnutrition, and thus, more than 50% of children in Burundi are suffering from malnutrition.
According to information from ADRA Burundi, the choice of the Buganda commune for the start of the approach was not made at random, rather the Buganda commune as Rugombo are the first in the Cibitoke province that experience more dirty hand diseases and the cholera epidemic, while the Buganda commune is directly bordering DRC, where it is reported that Ebola also benefits from deficiencies in hygiene.
