Press Release

On 11 December, 2020, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Myanmar have joined forces with Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) to target almost 8,500 households, 17 schools and 1 Hospital in Seikkyi Kanaungto Township, Southern Yangon with a Covid-19 "Wash Your Hands" campaign.

This campaign, a part of Technical Cooperation Project "The Project for Improvement of Water Supply Management of Yangon City Development Committee", will support raising awareness on hand hygiene and changing behavior, to make sure people are washing their hands with soap and water regularly and properly.

To improve hand hygiene awareness in community, (8,700) numbers of foaming hand soap together with educational flyers have been delivered to residents in the township under this JICA support, as hand-washing is the best thing people can do to protect themselves. In addition, (3) water storage tanks (800 gallon) are also contributed for sustainable water access in Seikkyi Kanaungto Township.

Global hand washing day is celebrated on 15 October 2020 with a theme of "Hand Hygiene for All" to increase people's awareness and understanding about the importance of washing hands with soap to stay away from germs and diseases and COVID-19 pandemic highlights the importance of handwashing with soap to ensure preventing infection.

As Myanmar is still counting high in number of COVID-19 infected patients daily, keeping hands clean is especially important to help prevent the virus from spreading during the COVID-19 pandemic. JICA believes such support for greater access to sanitation system and larger awareness for hygiene is vital to stop the spread of the disease in the vulnerable areas, thereby contributing to stronger resilience to current and potential future risk on the Myanmar's socio-economic development.

JICA is making its best efforts in helping Myanmar Government to combat COVID-19, such as "Zero Virus Day" for the YBS passenger and extending financial assistance for economic recovery from COVID-19 epidemic loss and COVID-19 Crisis Response Emergency Support Loan and so on.

Besides emergency support during COVID-19, JICA has been extending assistance for development of water supply sector with both soft and hard infrastructure. JICA provided technical support on "Master Plan for Water Supply, Sewerage and Drainage System in Yangon City" and

provided grant aid on "Urgent Improvement of Water Supply System in Yangon City". Likewise, two concessional loan projects are undergoing such as "The Greater Yangon Water Supply Improvement Project" Phase I (Lagunbyin) and Phase II (Kokkowa) project. In parallel, training and knowledge sharing program are also conducting through Japanese Experts for sustainable human resources development.

Thank you very much for washing your hands as it is the only medicine now.