Daily Times

KARACHI: Despite several commitments at different regional and international forums made by Pakistan to provide better sanitation and access to water to the people of Pakistan, commitments could not be fulfilled yet.

Like other countries of developing world, a lack of clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), is a major contributor to malnutrition also in Pakistan, which causes children to suffer with stunting.

A recent study “Caught short: How lack of toilets and clean water contributes to malnutrition” conducted by WaterAid, which reveals that in the list of top ten countries suffering with stunting, Pakistan ranks on Number 08 where 45 percent of the children are stunt, as 37 percent of the total population has no access to sanitation and 9 percent of total population is without access to drinking water.

“Diarrhoeal diseases caused by dirty water and poor sanitation are the second biggest killer of children under five after pneumonia, which are taking 315,000 young lives every year. Even those children who survive severe bouts of diarrhoea their life chances, forever,” stated the study.

To find the situation of water and sanitation in developing countries, especially in Pakistan, Daily Times conducted a combined interview of chief executive of UK based world charity Wateraid, Barbara Frost and director international programmes of WaterAid, Olga Ghazaryan. Both are in Pakistan to attend the celebration of 10 years of service of WaterAid in Pakistan.

WaterAid-UK is one of the UK’s most successful and highly regarded charities, which works to provide water, sanitation and hygiene in 31 developing countries including Pakistan to get better results on access and sanitation.

“On the basis of data, it shows that Pakistan is doing very well in achieving the Millennium Development goals on sanitation, but since we know that MGDs are for the half of the population and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are for the entire population and the targets of SDGs to achieve by 2030 which are set to eradicate extreme poverty, which is a big task and we need huge investment for that,” said Barbara Frost.

She said that if we put 1 dollar on better sanitation, we shall get 4 dollars in return in terms of betterment in health.

As I saw in Oragni, Karachi during my recent visit that people store water in tanks and transport it from one place to other, but that water is a not fit for drinking and causes negative results on health.

She said that I have recently visited Thatta districts in southern Sindh and found that the local people in the deltaic region are suffering with extreme poverty and they were affected by floods from the nearby sea. Worst sanitary conditions, water and open defecation is also a big issue.

“Lack of nutrition among children is directly related to WASH, as children suffering from diarrhoea also face malnutrition,” she told Daily Times, adding that hygiene is fundamental to reducing newborn and child mortality, fighting under nutrition, and advancing access to education. “It has been included in Goal 6, which is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, but there is currently no indicator to measure progress,” she added.

Director international programmes of WaterAid, Olga Ghazaryan said that not only the budget but for better sanitation, we need not only political will but also behavioral change to get better results. “Through behavioral changes a lot of money could be saved and a lot of enormous impact would be achieved,” she added, “But it is how they behave. And they don’t require money,”