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District closes four dispensaries for lack of toilets
2006-09-08 09:24:15
By Yasmine Protace, Mkuranga
Despite the importance of health facilities, four dispensaries in Mkuranga District have been ordered to close down, thanks to the area residents’ failure to construct toilets.
’Yes, we have closed Mbezi, Shungubweni, Msolwa and Kisiju dispensaries as they lack toilet facilities,’ confirmed Health Officer Bakari Mhina on Wednesday.
The move follows the failure by residents in respective areas to construct toilets for the dispensaries, he said.
Donors constructed the dispensaries and the local residents contribution was supposed to be putting up toilets by their own means, he said.
The government cannot allow the dispensaries to operate without toilets, he said.
’We visited the villagers in respective areas and appealed to them to construct at least two pit latrines. So far they have not done anything. They just want the dispensaries to operate without the vital facilities,’ he charged.
’Our operations are governed by health ethics,’ he said, adding that the affected villagers will have to seek health services in the neighbouring hamlets,’ he said.
’If the villagers want us to reopen the dispensaries, then they must construct the toilets,’ he said.
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