Sanitation targets to be 100% achieved by 2025: Minister Hakeem

The sanitation targets in the country set under the sustainable development goals are currently being achieved well ahead of time and will be 100% completed by 2025, said Minister of City Planning and Water Supply Rauff Hakeem at the recently-held South Asian Conference on Sanitation held in Pakistan.

“Our country is indeed quite pleased that we were able to achieve the previous set of goals under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Having said that it is indeed a matter of pride for all of us that we have taken into consideration all vulnerabilities that marginalise communities of our country are facing,” said Minister Hakeem.

The MDGs included access to adequate sanitation to 93% of population of Sri Lanka by 2015 and 100% by 2025, provide pipe-borne sewers in selected growth centres and major urban areas and acceptable on site sanitation to those not connected to sewer systems. 

The sanitation development goals in Sri Lanka include all the emerging metro cities such as Kandy, Hambantota, Trincomalee, Dambulla, Jaffna, Galle, Gampaha, Kurunegala and Nuwara-Eliya as well as large township such as Vavuniya, Badulla, Matara, Anuradhapura and Ratnapura which attract a substantial portion of the population and increase economic activities in the coming years to have centralised sewerage systems, which in turn will ensure environmental sustainability.

He further stressed on the fact that the government is even looking at every marginalised citizen and indeed it is a matter of pride for all of us as we look at the dignity of all young girls and women in all our communities in trying to promote the menstrual hygiene by accommodating to achieve their targets. The ministry has taken everyone into careful consideration as important members of the society hence sanitation is crucial for the well-being of the country as a whole.

The Minister noted: “We have many achievements to report including achievements regarding safety managed sanitation of our indigenous communities of our own countries. It is indeed a matter of happiness and pride for all of us that we are able to come out with another declaration in Islamabad and we would soon be in a position to reach the goals that we have set ourselves through the friendship and accommodation in hosting this function in an entertaining manner of our governments.”

The Government had long been seeking to set up a headquarters and the Local Government last year pledged to host this centre in Kandy very soon. 

“Everybody will have a permanent abode for the SACOSAN community by the next meeting in Delhi in 2020,” added Minister Hakeem.