Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Government of Lesotho (GoL) received 65 hand-washing stations from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a response to reduce the risk of
contracting Coronavirus (COVID-19) . These hand-washing stations are to be installed across the 10 districts of Lesotho in 17 taxi ranks and in 43 health care facilities.
Speaking at the handover ceremony that was held on Thursday at Khubetsoana taxi rank, UNDP Resident Representative Betty Wabunoha showed that this is in response to the demands of
their partners at the national level and community level partnering with government ministries, civil society organizations, private sector and many other partners in an initiative to strengthen the national response and recovery
strategies from Covid-19. “These water stations are product of UNDP innovative program called the Lesotho Accelerator Lab, intended to identify, explore and experiment local solutions by
addressing existing and emerging challenges. After a careful consideration of potential drivers of Covid-19, we realized that public spaces such as taxi ranks, bus
stops, market centers and health facilities are capable of spreading the pandemic clearly because they host heavy traffic in persons and business exchanges,” Wabunoha said.
She added that the UNDP Lesotho saw it benefiting to pilot this innovation in many places to encourage behavior change and hand-washing as the measure for
reducing the spread of coronavirus. “It is anticipated that having these in the open spaces will be a constant reminder of the basics in the prevention of the
virus. According to World Health Organization (WHO), washing of hands for not less than 20 seconds with running water and soap has a potential to reduce the
spread and infection from the virus,” Wabunoha stated. Speaking on behalf of the United Nations (UN) Lesotho, the UN Resident Coordinator Salvator Niyonzima said the UN is committed in supporting the efforts of all countries
and communities in fighting the pandemic. “I therefore want to celebrate innovation in helping Basotho people, in particular the people around here, to
keep their hands clean, safe and reduce the potential of contracting corona virus,” he added. A representative of the Taxi Rank Community Lebohang Moea stated that one of the
challenges they are facing in the taxi rank is that of shelter. “I believe that if the UNDP can provide us with shelter for safety during climate change, this
will change other health related conditions,” he charged. At the same event, the Minister of Health Hon. Motlatsi Maqelepo notified Basotho about necessity of hygiene on account that COVID-19 killed multitudes of people.
He showed that the country has currently tested over 17000 people of which 1303 tested positive with 33 deaths. “The occasion today also demonstrates the
strong cooperation we have had over the years with UNDP as the vision of the GoL and the Ministry of Health is to build a resilient health care system.
I can assure you that through our region we want to strengthen primary healthcare because that is where we will be able to combat most of the diseases,” said Maqelepo.
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