DC engages NGOs in ODF drive

Ntchisi district commissioner (DC) Malango Bottoman on Wednesday engaged non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash) sector to strategise on how the district can attain the open defecation-free (ODF) status by December.

“We invited all partners who are implementing community and school-led total sanitation projects to discuss ways of achieving our goal on water and sanitation including making the whole district open defaecation-free by the end of the year,” said Bottoman in an interview.

She said the district council secretariat decided to bang heads with Wash partners to check on the progress in the communities.

“For the district to achieve this we need support and total collaboration with all stakeholders. The NGOs are on the ground ensuring that communities adhere to best health practices. There is need, therefore, to hear from them if we are moving in the right direction,” Bottoman said.

Ntchisi district Wash coordinator James Mtonga said he was optimistic the district will meet the ODF target because currently, four of the seven traditional authorities (TAs) were already declared ODF.

“We are remaining with only three TAs for us to achieve our goal. The meeting with our partners will help us improve on the identified gaps. From here, we will massively conduct monitoring and supervision visits into the communities to ensure they are working towards realising our goal,” he said.

Mtonga applauded partners for rendering their support to various government sectors.

“As government sector, we may have the capacity but we lack support from our partners. We thank them for being cooperative when we jointly implement various activities in the communities,” he said. n