He then referred to the Black Death plague caused by poor sanitation and spread by rat fleas from 1347 to 1352, which killed millions of people in Europe, Asia, and North Africa.
"So, if we do not want the Black Death pandemic to happen again, we have to improve sanitation in our community," he said in a statement released on Wednesday.
According to him, the number of deaths due to an outbreak is the same as the number of deaths due to war, and can mount even more rapidly.
He then referred to James Clear's Atomic Habits, saying that small habits in environmental sanitation can have a big impact on health, such as preventing a pandemic.
Therefore, he invited the entire community to maintain the habit of living cleanly to protect their health.
The healthy sanitation movement, he said, is not an individual but a community movement and multi-sector effort involving collaboration between various stakeholders, including the ministries of transportation, public works and public housing, national development planning, and home affairs.
As part of efforts to encourage people to improve the sanitation system, Harbuwono has initiated the Community-Based Total Sanitation Award, based on measurable outputs and reduced infectious disease cases.
"Next year, I will order the director general of P2P (disease prevention and control) to carry out an outcome assessment activity after sanitation systems have been improved, whether the number of diarrhea (cases) has decreased, the number of infectious diseases has decreased and so on," he said.
Director of Environmental Health at the Ministry of Health Anas Ma'ruf said that the award is a form of support and commitment from the central government for sustainable health development.
The award involves a strict selection process, including document verification, field surveys, and a plenary determination by a cross-ministerial team, institutions, and development partners.
This year, the Community-Based Total Sanitation Award was given to the Governor of Central Java for completely ending open defecation in the province.
The award was also given to 42 districts and cities for changing community behavior to implement community-based total sanitation.
In addition, the award was given to 30 ports and 26 airports for success in organizing environmental health based on the indicators of safety, comfort, cleanliness, and health.
Meanwhile, the award for the ready-to-eat processed food safety program was given to two fostering provinces and 10 districts/cities that accelerated efforts to obtain the Certificate of Hygiene Sanitation Eligibility (SLHS) and the Food Hygiene Sanitation Label (HSP).
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Translator: Mecca Yumna Ning Prisie, Yashinta Difa
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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