KIGALI - Thirty-five African Ministers charged with sanitation and hygiene confirmed attendance at the African Sanitation and Hygiene Conference (AfricaSan 3) slated for Kigali next week.

Rwanda was named the host country for the high level meeting, which will mainly focus on achieving the Millennium Development Goal based on sanitation and hygiene.

Speaking to The New Times yesterday, the coordinator of water supply and sanitation in the Ministry of Infrastructure, James Sano, said that the organising committee has finalised the preparations.

"Besides the 35 Ministers, there over 800 delegates that have registered for the conference,” Sano said.

"Currently, we are working how to widen the scope of the conference to reach out to all Rwandans and we intend to use the media. So far we have 15 media houses as partners in this conference.”

Angola will send six cabinet ministers while Ghana, Togo and Zimbabwe will each send two ministers.

AfricaSan 3 is part of a movement towards achieving the MDGs on sanitation and Hygiene. Rwanda was chosen to host the conference because it is among the four countries in sub-Saharan Africa that are on track to meet this particular MDG. Others are Angola, Botswana, and South Africa.

The three-day conference is slated to kick off on July 19. The first two sessions of AfricaSan were held in South Africa in 2002 and 2008, respectively.

Ends