LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan has stressed the need for providing sanitation coverage and pure drinking water for all educational institutions to make them safe for the children, reports BSS. Speaking as the chief guest at an extended meeting of School Sanitation and Hygiene Education (SSHE) Forum at the city's Sheraton Hotel Tuesday, he said the government has pledged to provide 100 per cent sanitation coverage at national level by 2010, much ahead of the millennium development goals (MDGs) target. "We have achieved around 64 per cent house-hold level sanitation coverage at national level," he said adding: "But we do not have adequate data on water supply and sanitation facilities in educational institutions." Bhuiyan urged the representatives of various departments of the government, non-government organisations (NGOs) and development partners to come forward to ensure the child-friendly environment in educational institutions and to put more resources to cover other parts of the country where the people, especially the children and women, still remain un-served and under-served. Secretary to Local Government Division S Jahurul Islam, Representative of UNICEF to Bangladesh Louis-Georges Arsenault, Convener of SSHE Forum M Ashraful Alam and Project Director of UNICEF Abdul Quader Chowdhury as well as UNICEF officials Paul Edwards and Dipa Sen spoke on the occasion.
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