U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Sarah Penhune
and USAID/Central Asian Republics Regional Mission Director Erin E.
McKee met community members of Sarband Town during the opening ceremony
for the USAID Tajikistan Safe Drinking Water Project. Community members
assembled to celebrate this new system which will provide safe drinking
water to 14,921 people. The ceremony included a performance by local
schoolchildren on the importance of safe drinking water and good hygiene
to stay healthy.
“Many villages lack safe drinking water, and the U.S. Government is
very pleased to help solve this problem. Access to safe drinking water,
and proper sanitation and hygiene are essential to preventing water
borne diseases that can be deadly. After today’s celebration more hard
work remains. The newly rehabilitated water supply system will require
regular maintenance and close cooperation between community citizens and
their local government,” Ms. Penhune told the audience.
Like the other 25 other partner communities where the USAID
Tajikistan Safe Drinking Water Project is helping to provide access to
safe drinking water, residents of Sarband did not have reliable access
to safe drinking water. As a result citizens, especially children, were
frequently the ill with infectious water-borne diseases. Today, 14,921
people in Sarband Town have improved access to safe drinking water and,
as a result of USAID Tajikistan Safe Drinking Water Project training,
many people, particularly children, have changed their health and
hygiene practices.
The USAID Tajikistan Safe Drinking Water Project works in cooperation
with the Government of Tajikistan to increase access to sustainable
supplies of safe drinking water in rural Tajikistan, and enhance
capacity among health officials, community leaders, and the private
sector to promote health and hygiene behavioral changes in
beneficiaries. The project has supported provision of safe drinking
water in 25 communities in nine targeted districts. By September 2012,
USAID expects to have supported provision of safe drinking water to more
than 100,000 people in rural communities across Tajikistan.
The USAID Tajikistan Safe Drinking Water Project is one of the many
development projects supported in Tajikistan by the United States Agency
for International Development.
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