Benin water civil society actors organize media wash café

CWP Benin with the water non-state actors framework (CANEA) started a media campaign aiming at raising awareness around the various laws of the water sector. After the vote and the adoption of the law on public hygiene, it is necessary to popularize it in order to make it known to the general public. Though every is meant to know, in reality very few including senior official know about the laws.

The efforts are meant to contribute to the knowledge of the texts of the law with information activities towards the general public. These activities are organized through a media campaign including broadcasts, debates on different media outlets and a digital campaign to disseminate the important provisions of the Law.

The media café brought together all categories of media: television, radio, newspapers, online written press and Web TV with the aim to popularize the new law on public hygiene management.

The media are important actors of change in the promotion of hygiene and sanitation in the development agenda and the march of Benin towards the SDG 6.2. CANEA involve the Network of Media Actors for Water, Environment and Climate (RAMEC) for an appropriation of the content of the law by the populations.

The WASH Media Café will be followed by a media campaign and a digital campaign on the innovations contained in the law to ensure wide dissemination.

The new law includes several innovations, the most important of which are related to the empowerment of local authorities in the promotion of public hygiene, including the hygiene of public buildings, preschools, schools and universities, and the hygiene of detention centers. Also, the deputies opted in this law for the merger of the environmental police with the sanitary police. These new provisions call for a revision of the regulatory framework in order to situate the roles and responsibilities of each structure designated or not to enforce the law.  

While these innovations and new provisions are still unknown to the population, some citizens have been questioned by the courts for urinating on public roads.

The open media campaign with the WASH Media Café runs from 26 October to 26 November 2022 in conjunction with the digital campaign.