80% diseases in Pakistan due to unsafe drinking water

[Naveed Yaseen]

by Muhammad Qasim
The inaugural Global Handwashing Day assumes special significance, as the UN General Assembly has declared 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation to promote improved hygiene practices and draw attention to the world’s enormous sanitation challenge.

Federal Secretary Ministry of Environment Khushnood Akhtar Lashari stated this while briefing journalists on the inaugural Global Handwashing Day celebrated for the first time on Wednesday across the world.

He said the ministry of environment, in collaboration with provincial-regional governments and partners, has developed a comprehensive plan for international year of sanitation. The government has set the targets, which includes finalisation and approval of the provincial sanitation strategies-action plans by the respective cabinets; dissemination of hygiene messages focusing on hand washing with soap, construction and use of latrine and use of safe water amongst at least 20 per cent of the country’s population; provision of improved sanitation facilities to at least 6 per cent of the country’s population, which currently lacks access to the same; and finalisation and approval of the National Drinking Water Policy by the Federal Cabinet and development of action plan for its implementation.

Lashari said that over 80 per cent of all diseases are attributable to unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. According to a World Bank study undertaken in 2006, inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene in the country costs Pakistan economy about Rs112 billion per year in terms of health costs and lost earning. Poor sanitation and hygiene is also proving to be one of the barriers against tackling polio, as the virus is transmitted through oral-faecal route, especially in situations of poor hygiene. It has been found that most of the Polio cases in Pakistan in 2008 came from families without toilets.

According to a spokesman of the ministry, the objective of the event is to raise awareness, mobilise and motivate people about the benefits of handwashing with soap. Representative Unicef Pakistan Martin Mogwanja, Representative WHO Pakistan Dr. Khalif Bile and Manager, Proctor and Gamble Najia Amin were also present in the press briefing.

Khushnood Akhtar Lashari said that the major diseases include diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and E, trachoma, intestinal worms and others. Diarrhoea kills more than 1.5 million children under the age of five globally every year. In Pakistan, diarrhoea is responsible for 11 per cent of under-five deaths. The cost associated with diarrhoeal diseases alone is estimated more than 55 billion per year.

Speaking on the occasion, Martin Mogwanja said that Unicef will continue to support the Ministry of Environment and Government of Pakistan in promotion of safe hygiene practices and towards achievement of water and sanitation related Millennium Development Goals.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=141328