The Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, has inaugurated MUGA facility at Flacq. This is an initiative of the Mauritius Telecom (MT) Foundation, in Flacq. The Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Recreation, Mr Jean Christophe Stephan Toussaint; the Minister of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation, Mr Darsanand Balgobin, the Minister of Blue Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping, Mr Sudheer Maudhoo, as well as the Chief Executive Officer of MT, Mr Kapil Reesaul, were also present on the occasion.
In his keynote speech, the Prime Minister dwelt on the alarming situation regarding the prevalence of Non-Communicable Diseases among the population, pointing out that according to the latest survey, 20 % of the population suffers from Diabetes Type 2, 30% suffers from hypertension, 40% are overweight and 45 % suffers from obesity. Through the setting up of sports facilities such as the Flacq MUGA facility, Government’s aim is to sensitise the population on the need to adopt a physically healthy and active life, thus providing the necessary infrastructure to all age groups alike to develop that culture said the PM.
Mr Jugnauth reassured that Government recognises the need to act on different fronts to address this health situation and has rolled out several measures. These, he enumerated include: Improve the quality of public healthcare services; modernise several Health Units in public hospitals and provide for more health infrastructure, namely the setting up of mediclinics across the country, the specialised New Cancer Hospital for cancer patients and the New Flacq Teaching Hospital; and educate the population on the importance of adopting a healthy diet, avoiding excessive consumption of alcoholic drinks and the impacts of tobacco smoking.
Furthermore, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth underlined that the Government has elaborated a National Sports and Physical Activity Policy which advocates for the need for the population to practice physical activities on a regular basis. He remarked that a sports culture should be inculcated to children at a very young age itself.
PM Jugnauth lauded MT’s contribution to back Government’s efforts in fostering a sports culture and to this end, cater for the required infrastructure and equipment. The Flacq MUGA, he underscored, is the tweltfh facility being set up, and is equipped with amongst others, a futsal pitch, an outdoor gym, and the only one to have a Tennis Court and provides Free Wi-Fi connection.
On that note, the Prime Minister indicated that Government’s aim is to set up MUGA facilities across the country to increase access to sports infrastructure across the country, also announcing that such facilities will be constructed at Poudre d’Or Hamlet, Rodrigues and Agalega.
Besides, he spoke of other major sports facilities that the Government has set up, namely the Côte d’Or National Sports Complex which he recalled is ranked as the fifth best sports complex in Africa, and the Liverpool Football Club International Academy Mauritius to provide young players with an opportunity to develop, learning new techniques and skills.
