Rajbiraj, September 17

Local youths of Rajbiraj, Saptari carried out a clean-up drive today as part of the 50-week marathon sanitation campaign launched two weeks ago.

As a part of the campaign, the youths, with the support of Nepal Police and Nepal Army personnel, participated in the second week’s programme today to clean up a kilometre stretch of road in Rajbiraj-1, near Gautam Shishu Sadan School.

For this campaign, the youths set up a committee, naming it Saptari Youth Main  Committee, which selects different places where the clean-up drive is conducted on weekends.

Committee coordinator Shrawan Dev said, “Garbage has always been strewn all over nearby human settlements; which poses health risks. Therefore, we decided to launch the campaign hoping to help raise awareness among the people and at the same time contribute to garbage management,” said Dev.

Rajbiraj had recently witnessed a death from Japanese encephalitis and diarrhoea outbreak due to poor sanitation in Jamuni Madhepura village development.

“As people are taking ill due to poor sanitation, we have started making people aware of the risk of such diseases,” said a committee member Bishnu Yadav, adding that the campaign has been extended to all six electoral constituencies of the

district.