Environmental Health Division Western Province

31/07/2023

Trachoma screening, awareness and WASH facility inpection at Nazareth school, Marovo.

22/07/2023

https://www.sibconline.com.sb/minister-mua-lifts-suspension-against-logging-company/

The Minister for Forestry and Research, Hon. Dickson Mua, has lifted the suspension order imposed on Golden Fountain Development Company Limited which subcontracted Sunway (SI) Limited to carry out logging operations in Roviana lagoon in Western province. On June 23, 2023, the Commissioner of Forest...

15/07/2023

10/07/2023

📣 𝗣𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗜𝗖 𝗦𝗬𝗠𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗜𝗨𝗠 𝗢𝗡 𝗖𝗗𝗙 𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗕𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯

Save the date for the upcoming Public Symposium on the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) Act Bill 2023 to be hosted by the Ministry of Rural Development Solomon Islands in collaboration with the Solomon Islands National University (SINU).
Date: Thursday 6 July 2023.
Venue: SINU, Kukum Campus, Lecture theatre, Honiara
Time: 1:00pm
All are welcome to attend this very important event as it is part of the mandatory reforms that the Ministry of Rural Development Solomon Islands is undertaking to improve and strengthen the delivery mechanisms of the CDF program and its governance.
Lukim ufala lo Thursday.
Thank you.

05/07/2023

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/erika-zarate-torres-86030619_water-climatechange-watercycle-activity-7081942447055851520-P_mx?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

How Climate change alters the Water Cycle - a recent review published in Nature Water by Zaitchik et al. (2023) explains that there are two hypothesis: "wet…

01/07/2023

Learning from, and admitting failure, is critical to learning and improving WASH in our country going forward

Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) failures continue to be discussed mostly off...

01/07/2023

Logging spoiled our beautiful water resources in Western Province affecting our children’s education

WPG PS CONIFRM CLOSURE OF BPSS

Western Provincial Government (WPG) through its Western Provincial Education Authority (WPEA) have confirmed the closure of Beulah Provincial Secondary School (BPSS) in Western Province since last week.

Provincial Sectary (PS) for WPG, Patrick Toirana, confirmed this to Freelance Reporter, Denver Newter, vie emailed this morning from Gizo.

BPSS was forced to close its doors last week following reports of alleged contamination of its water supply.

The closure of the school was attributed to extensive tree felling activities in the vicinity recently, leading to the alleged pollution of the Ziata River, Noro and its reservoir.

According to BPSS Administration, the contamination of the school’s water source sent shockwaves through the local community and left authorities with no choice but to shut down the school until the issue was resolved.

Reports suggest that the water in the Ziata River, which had previously been clean, safe and reliable, turned murky and was declared by authority as being unfit for consumption.

PS Toirana confirmed, that his office have met with WPG Education Division(ED) last week including the Premier briefed about the abrupt closer of the school.

He explained, the situation is awful and instructions from WPG as an Education Authority (EA) is to close the school pending confirmation by Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development (MEHRD) in Honiara.

PS said they have requested reports and Forestry Division as well as Environmental Health have already compiled and sent in their assessments which further warrants the school closure.

‘’The only concern is for the exam year students, and we asked ED to come up with possible options for addressing their situation.

That is whether to make interventions sufficient enough to accommodate them only and allow them to continue or they also go home like the rest of the students’’

‘’It is an ongoing issue, and we hope we can address it sooner for the sake of the school students, ’PS Toiraena said in his email.

BPSS is currently only Provincial State High School operated and administered by the WPG WPEA.

ENDS///WITH PHOTO

CAPTION: BPSS

NEWS SOURCE: Denver Newter

30/06/2023

With the support of the Australian governments Water for Women Fund, the International WaterCentre, Griffith University and Solomon Islands National University recently accompanied the Western Province Environmental Health Division (EHD) and Rural Water Sanitation and Hygiene (RWASH) team to undertake monitoring and follow-up in four communities - Kaza, Nusa Roviana, Baeni and Labulabu.

This short video (8 mins) includes responses from water committee members and community leaders after watching a
24 minute video entitled 'Water is Everyone's Business', which forms the centre point of a Tok Stori engagement process with water committee members and community leaders. The Tok Stori includes a SWOT analysis, a priority ranking exercise and a short and simple Action Plan. EHD will follow-up the Action Plans via phone calls with focal points from each village over the coming 6-12 months, after which SINU/IWC will conduct on-site monitoring and evaluation. The goal is to identify more culturally appropriate and effective community engagement approaches that are better attuned to the resource and capacity constraints (e.g. geography) of the Western Province.

The goal is to improve rural water system sustainability and WASH outcomes (which are currently falling short of both government and community expectations) through using formative and action research to find practical and impactful solutions to support rural communities and water managers, who are facing the impacts of climate change on a daily basis and are tasked with maintaining water systems with little to no support for 20 years. With hundreds of rural villages spread across 11 islands (26 wards) in an area covering 5,500km2, business as usual has to change if the WASH situation is to improve.

The trip was led by Senior Health Inspector Merilyn Vana, RWASH Principal Health Inspector John Sele, Collin Benjamin (Solomon Islands National University) and Dr Mark Love (International WaterCentre, Griffith University).