A day-long district advocacy workshop on drinking water and sanitation was held on March 6 at Lotsava Auditorium of J&K Cultural Academy Leh.

 

The workshop was organised by S.R Institute of Development (SRID) sponsored by J&K Communication and Capacity Development Unit (CCDU), Water and Sanitation Support Organization (WSSO), PHE and I&FC department.

Chaired by Dorjey Motup, CEC, the day was attended by Gyal P Wangyal EC Health, Tsering Sandup, EC Tourism, Councillors, CMO, engineers and field staff of PHE Division and many other dignitaries were present.

Addressing the programme, Dorjey Motup said that water conservation, sanitation and hygiene are the core issues of today’s world and the schemes of GoI and J&K State are designed to address these issues at grass root level.

He said that since water, sanitation and hygiene directly affect the society, it is the prime responsibility of every stakeholders and individual to make these schemes successful by their active participation and effective implementation.

He informed that the pressure on natural resources of Ladakh especially drinking water is increasing with the rapid swelling in the population,   growing tourism industry and high influx of migrant labours. To counter these challenges, every stakeholder specially PHE division must act on all preventative and precautionary measures on time.

Dorjey Motup assured all possible support for an implementation of SRID /CCDU programmes in days to come.

Appreciating the SRID team for holding such an important awareness drive about safe drinking water and sanitation, Gyal P Wangyal, said that the need of the hour is to ensure prompt implementation of such precautionary instructions.

He said that with the growing population of Leh town specially during summer months, Leh district faces severe threat of drinking water contamination. The PHE dept. should have water testing machines and other important labs to ensure supply of clean and safe drinking water to the citizens.

Riyaz Ah. Malik, Chairmen/Chief Executive S.R Institute of Development briefed about the importance of water, hygiene and sanitation and highlighted the role of SRID and CCDU in an implementation of HRD /IEC activities in Jammu & Kashmir State. 

He said that the organization has been selected to conduct the Information, Education and Communication activities under National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) in Leh district for the year 2017-18

A demonstration of water testing process and techniques of hand washing was also given to the audiences.