The Papua New Guinea Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) Policy 2015 – 2030 reflects the Government's commitment to improve the quality of lives of people including women, children and the marginalized (disabled) living in urban and rural areas. In response to the governments ambitious agenda, a WaSH Program Management Unit (WaSH PMU) was established within Department of National Planning and Monitoring (DNPM) to support and coordinate implementation of the policy with the purpose of establishing a National Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Authority (NWSHA). Currently the DNPM WaSH PMU have a robust WaSH Management Information System (MIS) that can collect real time data for WaSH through projects implemented across the country. The MIS is built on a mobile based application called mWater and it is very useful for the sector to track progress against targets outlined in the MTDP3, WaSH Policy 2015-2030 and our global commitment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 6.1 and 6.2.

Objective

The policy aims to see a sustainable and equitable increase in access to safe water, sanitation and improve in long-term hygiene practices particularly in rural, peri-urban areas and institutions such as schools and health care facilities.

WaSH Provinces/ Districts

WaSH PMU is coordinating interventions in 17 WaSH districts in PNG; 4 funded by EU (Goroka, Hagen, AROB, Nawaeb), 3 funded by World Bank (WB) (Henganofi, Markahm, Wapenamanda), including 2 urban towns (Bulolo, and Bialla) and 5 funded by DFAT (Wewak, South Fly, Bougainville, Namatanai and Kavieng). Water and sewerage upgrade in 3 major towns funded by ADB (Kerema, Mendi, Vanimo).

WaSH Project Updates

The DNPM WaSH MIS database currently has data from 1,984 rural communities, 887 schools and 227 Health care facilities. This is just a minor fraction compared to the overall total of communities, schools and health care facilities across the country and the government is strategically committed to extend the sectors improvement plan to other districts across the country.

Going Forward

Despite the challenges we face as a sector, the Government of Papua New Guinea recognizes the WaSH sector as one of its key integral components that will contribute effectively to the development of these country. Hence, the sector will continue to expand into other district town and provincial cities to improve the living standards of people through access of clean water, sanitation and better hygiene practices to attain its goals and targets outlined in the WaSH Policy, Medium Term Development Plan III 218-2022 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Contact Details:

WaSH PMU National Coordinator
Name: Takale Tuna
Email: takaletovetuna@gmail.com
Phone Number: +675 7073904
Monitoring & Evaluation Officer: 3084169
Email: benziimadt@gmail.com
Finance Management Officer: 3084167
National WaSH Planner: 3084166
Email: infowashpmu@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WSHPMU/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/washpmu/