Watershed Interventions for Systems Health in Fiji (WISH Fiji) carried out five-day refresher training for the health inspectors in the North as part of efforts to ensure communities have access to safe drinking water.
The training comes at an opportune time as Fiji cleans up after Tropical Cyclone Ana and a reported increase in leptospirosis, typhoid, dengue and diarrhoea (LTDDs) cases in North following on from Tropical Cyclone Yasa that hit Fiji late December. After TC Yasa, several communities in Bua Province were already recognised as hotspots for LTDDs.
With the use of portable laboratory kits, Wagtech Potalah, health inspectors in the North learned how to determine if drinking water is safe for consumption, identify the source of contamination and recommend interventions to reduce the risks of water-related disease in affected communities, all these within a short time frame.
WISH Fiji project manager, Timoci Naivalulevu said, “The water quality assessments are critical to ensure that the risks of disease transmission are detected quickly, so we can enact preventive measures,” he added. The five divisional health inspectors will prioritise these high-risk areas to conduct water quality assessments after the training.
During the last two days of the training, participants conducted water assessments in six communities in Dama District in the Bua Province.
The WISH Fiji project has spent over a year working with communities in Dama and four other watersheds to identify the factors contributing to water-related diseases and affecting human health and the many services provided by the environment. Since then, WISH Fiji, through its Water Safety and Security Planning workshops has identified multiple interventions that will be implemented to improve the water and sanitation infrastructure and wisely manage human activities within their village and watershed environments to help reduce the transmission of water-related diseases.
WISH Fiji had completed two water infrastructure interventions in Tavulomo Village in Dama District in Bua Province and Bureta District on Ovalau Island in Lomaiviti Province.
Images by: Henryk Niestroj from Pixabay and WISHFiji
