Daily Times

KARACHI: “Sindh government will eradicate open defecation from the province by year 2025,” said Sindh Local government director Faheem Junejo while addressing a session organised to mark ‘World Toilet Day’ which was observed on Monday.

Junejo claimed that 70 percent of rural households in high priority districts would achieve complete Open Defecation Free (ODF) status by 2020 and proper sanitation infrastructure including sewer lines and closed drains would be installed in urban areas with 80 percent coverage and rural areas with almost 60 percent coverage by 2025. He further said that wastewater treatment mechanisms would be developed to cover 75 percent of urban areas and 40 percent in rural areas by 2025.

The session was centered around the theme ‘Toilets and Nature, the Pathway to Neat and Clean Sindh.’ It was organised by Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) Karachi with collaboration of WaterAid.

During the session, Junejo stressed on the need to spread awareness in order to discourage ODF in Sindh. He shared that as per Sindh Sanitation Policy 2017, the government of Sindh had planned interventions in 13 districts and 400 villages located in prioritised districts in order to eliminate ODF.

“Women suffer most due to the lack of public toilets in markets, bus stations and other public venues,” remarked Junejo. “Government of Sindh believes in pro-people legislation in WASH sector,” he added. He further said that the government was taking steps to properly manage sanitation and was focused on constructing more public toilets and encouraging community-led initiatives to improve the sanitation condition.

“Menstrual hygiene management, integrated solid waste management, wastewater treatment, enforcement of hospitals waste and management rules, 2014, public private partnership and waste marketing are some of the areas we are focused on,” said Junejo.

While sharing the institutional arrangements the government of Sindh had developed for intervention in WASH sector, Junejo said that the structures such as multi-sectorial nutrition steering committee, departmental technical committee, district coordination committee, district WASH and ODF committee, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and community based organisations would be involved in the process.

Sindh Development Goals (SDG) project coordinator Atur Das Sajnani, Project said that the SDG committee was responsible for collaborating with different stakeholders in order to implement targets. According to Sajnani, more than 50 percent of Sindh’s population was suffering from diseases related to water and santitation due to a lack of proper sanitation facilities in the province. “If we develop proper water and sanitation system, we would be able minimise our health expenses both on an individual and national level,” he said.

Sindh Commission on the Status of Women (SCSW) chairperson Nuzhat Shirin also spoke on the occasion. She said that SCSW had the responsibility and mandate to review the policies formed in the WASH sector since women were an important stakeholder. “We would be looking for support from government and civil society stakeholders for proper legislation and implementation pertaining to the solution of the issues and challenges being encountered by the women of Sindh in WASH sector,” said Shirin.

Karachi SPO regional coordinator Raheema Panhwar said that Sindh was undergoing rampant urbanization and that had increased influx to cities and towns. She said that the municipal services were inadequate and could not cope with the demand, especially with the mushroom growth of new housing schemes, industrial estates and commercial zones in urban centers.

“Sindh province is suffering unacceptably high child mortality rates and high nutritional deficiency among children. Government of Sindh has developed ten (10) years multi-sector ‘Sindh Strategic Sector Plan 2016-2026 Drinking water, Sanitation and Hygiene’ to provide better sanitation services in province,” said Panhwar. She added that the provincial government had formulated ‘Sindh Sanitation Policy 2017’ which aimed for a 100 percent eradication of ODF from the province. She further said that the policy was framed to ensure that people had access to sanitary latrines by 2025. “The policy envisions that the entire population of Sindh has access to a safely-managed sanitation service and sanitary environment with overall aim to develop Neat and Clean Sindh” she added.

Published in Daily Times, November 20^th 2018.