SANNIQUELLIE, April 27 (LINA) - Global Communities, a non-governmental organization, predicts that 720 villages and towns are likely to be declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) after five years of networking with its project “Partnership for Advancing Community-Based Projects (PACS).”

 
Global Communities currently operates in Nimba, Bong and Lofa counties and indicated that villages and towns with the guidance of the PACS program should have access to latrines, safe drinking water, community cemetery and identified garbage sites.
 
The NGO’s County Manager in Nimba, Sheik A. Chroman, says hygienic communities sensitive to sanitary activities are difficult to catch diseases that spread as a results of pollutions and unsafe water sources.
 
The program is implemented in five statutory districts in Nimba, including Yarwain Mehnslonn, Zoe Geh, Gbehlay Geh, Saclepea, and Sanniquellie Mah Statutory Districts.
 
Villages and towns selected in the country for the first year projects would benefit from 90 hand pumps along with training in Water And Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) to achieve Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) in Liberia, especially the distant leeward regions.
 
He maintained that those communities would be trained to remain sensitive to domestic and public sanitation activities, including road-side brushing, pollution mitigation and control of domesticated farm animals.
 
Elizabeth Geddeh, County Coordinator of the Global Communities PACS project in Nimba told the Liberia News Agency (LINA) over the weekend that the five years project cost US$24 million with an expected community contribution worth US$2.5million.
 LINA