Daily Times

KARACHI: As the nations were busy celebrating World Water Day on Wednesday, 12,000 public schools in Sindh were suffering from either no water or from contaminated water, as per official data released on Wednesday.

This was not the only miserable condition of schools as around 21,000 schools were found without toilets facilities, one of the reasons of increasing dropout ratio in the province.

On World Water Day, which was observed on Wednesday, a meeting held under the chair of Sindh Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah was informed that water and sanitation facilities are out of order in the schools despite recently announced education emergency in the province.

Chief Minister, showing ‘displeasure’ over the situation, ordered to provide basic facilities in three months time before the completion of financial year.

In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly officially designated March 22 as World Water Day. World Water Day is coordinated by UN-Water in collaboration with governments and partners. The day focuses attention on the importance of universal access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities in developing countries. The day also focuses on advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), in 2015, 91 per cent of the world’s population had access to an improved drinking-water source, compared with 76% in 1990. However, globally, at least 1.8 billion people use a drinking-water source contaminated with faeces. Contaminated water can transmit diseases such diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Contaminated drinking-water is estimated to cause 502 000 diarrhoeal deaths each year. By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas.

According to health experts, contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked with transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio.

“Absent, inadequate, or inappropriately managed water and sanitation services expose individuals, including school-going children to preventable health risks,” said Dr Khalid Shafi, General Secretary Pakistan Pediatric Association, Sindh and assistant professor at Dow Medical College,

“Take an example of Karachi which is most populous city of Pakistan but it lacks filtered water. The situation leads to increased consumption of bottled water which become costly for individuals resultantly citizens consume less water which causes kidney related diseases.” Dr Shafi added.