Youth Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Coalition Commends President Weah…..

According to YWCA Senior Director, Program Management, James Koryor the action by the Liberia leader will help address the many challenges faced by the sector in terms of coordination.

The youth leader further stressed that over the years the sector coordination was fragmented thereby causing serious challenges to WASH service delivery, regulation, monitoring, financing as well as limited civil society participation.

In 2015, world leaders signed into action new set of development goals known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which surpassed the tasks required by the MDGs. The Sustainable Development GOAL 6 aspires to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, has all the elements of all forms of water, sanitation and hygiene” the importance of the WASH commission to Liberia cannot be over-stressed Koryor noted.

The YWCA executive stated that the provision of a slot for civil society on the WASH Commission board clearly demonstrates that the President recognizes the significant role of civil society organizations in meeting the SDGs targets.

The Lack of access to clean water remains a challenge for millions of people around the world, including in Liberia. Over a decade of internal conflict has left Liberia’s water and sanitation infrastructure in ruins. Poor sanitation, water, and hygiene have a number of serious consequences for children, increasing their vulnerability to a wide range of diseases Koryor averred.

Children, particularly girls, are denied their education because their schools lack private and decent sanitation facilities. 55% of schools in Liberia do not have access to a functional water supply. 43% of schools do not have access to functional latrines and 82% of the schools do not have handwashing facilities. UNICEF Report.

We again thank the President for the farsightedness, as we look forward to the commission bringing a complete change to the sector.