THE Rural Water Supply Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is embarking on implementing about 40 plus outstanding projects from 2013-2014 this year.
WASH could not implement these projects last year due to the $10 million scandal that rocked the Ministry of Health and Medical Services and delay of materials, which arrived in the remaining half of last year.
Project Coordinator, Jacob Makini said the projects target communities in all provinces in the country that are in dire need of clean water and sanitation.
Mr Makini said for smaller provinces, tanks will be provided to communities to access clean water.
He said unlike the bigger provinces, pipe water will be provided for their communities because they have rivers.
Makini said these projects will be based on submissions by project managers based in all the respective provinces.
“The communities will submit their applications to the project managers followed by a survey to determine the costing.
“After the project managers submit their submissions to the Provincial Government for endorsement, WASH will then send them to AusAID and the Solomon Islands government for funding,” he said.
Mr Makini said all submissions to the government are made through the Ministry of Development Planning and Aid Coordination.
He said the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has also provided assistance toward water improvement in the country.
According to Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), about 50-70% of rural population has access to piped or improved water supply while coverage in urban areas is about 80-90%.
By EDDIE OSIFELO