The Communities Ministry on Friday organised a Sanitation Awareness Day programme at its Fort Street, Kingston office as part of a flagship community awareness programme to educate communities on the importance of good sanitation practices.
Throughout the day, children of the employees were facilitated with sanitation sessions and discussions which demonstrated hand-washing techniques.
Waste separation was also one of the areas of focus, mainly in terms of composting household waste materials.
In this instance, they were briefed on the ways a compost tumbler can be utilised to store and reused biodegradable waste items which are generated from the home. For this, the items must be separated and kept in the right manner until ready to be used.
The main objective of this exercise was to enable the children to recognise what are some of the sanitation practices they can engage in, and the importance of
A tumbler used for waste composting
doing so in their everyday activities.
Techical Advisor on Sub-waste at the Ministry, Gordon Gilkes, indicated that this is in keeping with the plan to educate everyone on healthy practices to promote positive lifestyle changes.
“We want to stress on the importance of good sanitation in our day-to-day activities. It is important that we know what good sanitation is all about, and how we can maintain good sanitation; because, with poor sanitation, there is a risk to our well-being and a risk to health issues.”
For the Sanitation Management Unit, these events will further promote the development of sustainable communities by participatory approaches to address these topics.
