Freshwater Action Network (FAN) Nepal organized a national meeting of government officials and Civil Society Organization (CSO) representatives in Kathmandu to share the updates regarding the preparation of Nepal Government and the CSOs for participating at fourth South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) in Sri Lanka.
The SACOSAN is a regional conference held in every two years, where the governments of South Asia gather to discuss on sanitation issues in the region. The first conference was organized in 2003 in Dhaka, Bangladesh where as second and third SACOSAN was held in Islamabad, Pakistan and Delhi, India in 2006 and 2008 respectively.
"In the process, the SACOSAN IV is going to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 4-8 April, 2011", said Khom Subedi, Chief, Environment and Disaster Management Section, Department of Water Supply and Sewerage. He told that Government of Nepal is currently preparing for participating at the conference.
Sharing about the commitments made by the government in last conference in Delhi to promote sanitation in the region, he informed that Nepal took several initiatives in sanitation following these commitments. It formulated Urban Water and Sanitation Policy and, also, allocated a separate budget amount 190 million rupees on sanitation. Similarly, the Nepal National Sanitation Master Plan was drafted, that has set a precondition to all water related projects to implement different sanitation activities for achieving total sanitation in project areas, he further said.
He told that the SACOSAN in its process will be held its fifth conference in Nepal, which is an opportunity for the government to raise national sanitation issue at regional level and gain support from the community in the region. He also urged all national and local level stakeholders and sector players to support the government in the preparation of SACOSAN V.
At the programme, National Convenor of FAN Nepal and Executive Director of LUMANTI, Lajana Manandhar told that CSOs in South Asia Region will sit in a two day meeting in the eve of SACOSAN IV to come up with a common invoice in sanitation at regional level that will be presented at official SACOSAN.
According to Manandhar, the first CSOs Pre-SACOSAN meeting held in 2008 in Delhi, India had come up with an 8-point declaration in sanitation. She told that the the sanitation activities conducted by the CSOs following the last declaration are being evaluated currently. It is being done in Nepal as well to prepare a National Paper that will be shared at CSOs gathering at SACOSAN IV in April 2011.
At the meeting, the participants also announced a common National Committee in coordination of Lajana Manandhar responsible to make the necessary preparation for participating at fourth SACOSAN.
Likewise, the meeting highlighted the important role that media can play at SACOSAN IV for promoting sanitation. It appointed Anil Sthapit, Director of Guthi as a focal media person of Nepal for SACOSAN IV, who will regularly disseminate the SACOSAN IV updates along with the commitments made during the conference to media.
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