The Ministry of Health (MoH) in coordination with Central Nghe An province launched a campaign in the province on July 2 calling on communities to build and use hygienic latrines.
As part of activities in response to the patriotic movement for sanitation and people’s health, t he campaign is designed to promote better sanitation in schools and the community. It will encourage communities to adopt hygienic habits and use toilets.
It aims to improve hygiene to reduce health-related issues, prevent diseases and raise food safety standards.
At the launching ceremony, Unilever Vietnam’s Vim brand also kicked off a programme to improve sanitation and hygiene in schools in 2013.
The company pledged to raise awareness of personal hygiene and environmental sanitation in more than 300,000 pupils and their parents.
Unilever will help build 90 toilet systems in 30 primary schools across the country in the coming time.
On the same day, a similar campaign was launched in the northern province of Ha Nam.
According to statistics from the General Statistics Office and the United Nations, four percent of Vietnam’s population defecates in the open, and 16 percent of people still use unhygienic latrines that cannot stop human waste contaminating the environment.
In 2012, the rate of rural households with hygienic toilets was only 57 percent.-VNA
