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Radaus
Wed, 29 Oct 2008
MELBOURNE,Australia ------- Aid agencies in the Pacific are struggling to deliver adequate sanitation and water programmes to isolated communities in the region, reports Radio Australia.
One in three people living in rural and remote communities do not have access to water hygiene and sanitation facilities.
Pauline Komolong, a water engineer working for Oxfam in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the autonomous Bougainville province has told the Sanitation and Water conference in the Australian city of Melbourne, the aid agency is struggling to meet the challenge of delivering services to remote communities.
“Some of the challenges are such things as the terrain where it's impossible getting there; sometimes you walk across gushing rivers, climb mountains and when you are transporting materials sometimes it takes a long time because of all the logistics that are involved,” she said.
The conference, which includes representatives from United Nations agencies, aid agencies and the World Bank, was organised as part of the International Year of Sanitation.
World Vision said in 2004 in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, 100 million people were estimated to be living without safe water and 185 million without adequate sanitation.
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