Health Ministry Appeals For Sewage Disposal System Experts The Minister of Health in the GOSS, Dr. Luka Tombekana Monoja has said that the Ministry is requesting the United Nations Environmental Program to send an expert to access whether the state of sewage disposal plant serving Juba is in accordance with international standards.12 April 2011 Dr. Luka Tombekana Monoja, addressing the media at Ruton [©Gurtong] By Juma John Stephen JUBA, 11th April, 2011 [Gurtong] – The Minister of Health in the GOSS, Dr. Luka Tombekana Monoja has said that the Ministry is requesting the United Nations Environmental Program to send an expert to access whether the state of sewage disposal plant serving Juba is in accordance with international standards.
“We are not sure whether the state at which it is in now, is a fully treated sewage and we are not able to get an expert to explain to us whether this is how a sewage plant works,” Dr. Tombekana explained. Tombekana expressed the need for this exercise knowing the risk which the surrounding communities may face, especially the children who are fishing and swimming in the sewage plant. The minister wrote to the United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP, to commission an expert for the ministry to assess if the sewage disposal plant was being managed well. “It is not fair to channel the sewer system from the urban areas to the village in order to constitute a health risk to the population,” said Dr. Tombekana. The Minister was accompanied with a group from the Committee of Juba Urban Sanitation Program to see the sewage plant located in Ruton, North of Juba town between the Juba International Airport and the Army Barracks. “Our aim of coming here is to inspect the safety of the sewage disposal system and what risk it may present to the community around. We have had a freelance consultant who took pictures that showed children swimming in this water,” the minister added. However the one of the Chiefs of the area, James Laku has told the media that the sewage is posing a threat to the community around because the community was using the land around the sewage plant to produce vegetables to the whole market of Juba. “This sewage has entered into the villages as you can see. One thing that I would like to inform the government is that this place has grown into a deep swampy area. The water from the sewage drains and sinks down into the open dug wells here and we drink this water. So how can we survive in this situation?” Chief Laku complained. The Chief called upon the government to ensure that the sewage is either drained away or well managed to avoid been a health risk. Posted in: Home -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
