A National Strategy for Rural Water Supply and Environmental Health (commonly known as the RWSS Strategy) was
adopted in 1997 and updated in 2004. Both urban and rural sanitation are the responsibility of the Ministry of Public
Health (MPH), through the National Centre for Environmental Health (Nam Saat). Implementation of the strategy
has been constrained because it is poorly communicated and disseminated, and also because Nam Saat has limited
fi nancial resources for implementing policies and limited numbers of staff and capacities at provincial and district
level to deliver fully on its mandate. Nam Saat hosts occasional meetings of the national sanitation group, which
is essentially an information sharing forum (between those attending), but it does not facilitate sector planning,
decision-making processes or resource mobilisation and deployment.