Ministry to locate third pilot WSP project in S’wak, conference told

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KUCHING: Sarawak will be the location for a third pilot Water Safety Plan (WSP) project under the Ministry of Health (MOH), after Kpg Mela, Gua Musang in Kelantan and Kpg Padang, Kuala Tahan, Jerantut in Pahang.

The project is scheduled to be initiated by the end of this year and will utilise a rainwater harvesting system, unlike the two earlier projects which utilise sanitary wells and gravity feed systems.

This was revealed by Engku Azman Tuan Mat, senior deputy director (Regulatory) of Engineering Services Division under MOH, during his presentation entitled ‘Malaysia’s Experience Piloting WSPs in Rural Communities’ on the second day of the International Water Safety Conference.

Since the 1970s, MOH has worked hard to engage with rural communities in ensuring clean water supply, proper latrine and sewage disposal, and solid waste management under Rural Environmental Sanitation Programme (RESP) as approximately one third of the country’s population is in rural areas.

RESP has been effective in helping to control the occurrence of diseases related to excreta and poor sanitation.

However, changing environmental, situational, cultural and institutional factors over the years had created the need for more comprehensive framework to guide water safety programme policy, decision making, procedures, documentation and implementation in rural areas.

As such, WSPs can help further improve RESP’s effectiveness and sustainability.

One of the biggest challenges faced by MOH, however, is getting the community to follow the WSP guidelines.

Engku Azman emphasised that for these programmes to succeed, community participation was paramount.

By training and involving them in construction, operation and maintenance, they would also gain a sense of ownership over the project and more likely become pro-active stakeholders towards ensuring the programme’s success.

Once completed, the project would be handed over to the community to operate and maintain, with regular monitoring and assistance from relevant government authorities where necessary.

Based on results and feedback obtained from the pilot projects, MOH plans to launch and formalise WSPs and expand the programme to more rural areas by December next year.

MOH aims to achieve full implementation of WSP for rural water supply systems by January 2014.