Speaking at the occasion, the deputy permanent secretary at the Department of State for Health and Social Welfare, Alhagie Saihou Janneh, said the meeting is timely. He said that tackling sanitation, needs a sectoral approach adding that the Department of State for Health and partners will do everything possible to come up with a sanitation policy.

For his part, the principal public health officer at DOSH, Sanna Jawara, stated that DOSH is about to startdeveloping a national sanitation policy that is why all the stakeholders are invited to discuss and put their inputs into the development of the policy.

He pointed out that after the meeting a local consultant will be hired to develop the policy which will be subjected to validation before being sent to cabinet.

Mr. Jawara thanked UNICEF for funding the meeting.

Speaking earlier the chief public health officer, Batch Samba Conteh, said 583 million people in Africa do not have access to sanitation.