‘24% of country’s hospital beds occupied by waterborne disease patients’

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Amar Guriro

KARACHI: Experts from different countries and officials of the Pakistani government, as well as international organisations, have expressed concern over the alarming increase in the number of waterborne and diarrhoeal diseases around the world. The increase is due to the limited access to safe drinking water and the lack of proper sanitation systems.

Quoting data collected by international organisations, these experts disclosed that every day, diarrhoeal diseases kill 6,000 people around the world, out of which 5,000 are children. They said in Pakistan, 38.5 million people do not have access to safe drinking water and 50.7 million do not have the facility of proper sanitation. These high statistics result in more than 24 percent of Pakistan’s hospital beds being occupied by the people suffering from waterborne diseases. Moreover, diarrhoea is the leading cause of mortality and second leading cause of morbidity among children under five years of age.

Addressing the session of the first day of Aga Khan University’s National Health Sciences Research Symposium on ‘The Impact of Water and Sanitation on Health: Our Problems, Our Solutions’, Pakistan government Health Director General Dr Rashid Jooma said that the work being done on the water and sanitation sectors in Pakistan is not like that being done in other countries, such as India, worsening the sanitation conditions.

Jooma said that the bad sanitation conditions are not only affecting human health but the environment too. He added that the estimated cost of environmental degradation in Pakistan is Rs 365 billion per year, of which Rs 112 billion is caused by inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene conditions.

Talking about the government’s response to these challenges, including legislation and policy, and initiatives for safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, he said there are several projects in the pipeline and more is yet to be done. “One example is washing hands with soap, which can reduce diarrhoea by 47 percent and is critical in the fight against polio,” he said, adding that inter-agency cooperation and public-private partnerships to improve water supply and sanitation programmes are necessary.

Senior Architect and Urban Town Planner Arif Hassan underlined the fact that over the last 50 years the government has invested considerable money, including aid, in drinking water and sanitation programmes. However, these projects have not been successful and have increased Pakistan’s foreign debt considerably. Some NGO projects have delivered positive results but unless their methodology becomes a part of the official policy, planning and implementation procedures, they cannot be successful to the extent required for servicing the growing demand for water and sanitation. In the past two years, the government has legislated a sanitation and drinking water policy which, to be successful, will need to relate to ground realities.

UNICEF Deputy Representative Luc Chauvin said that water and sanitation are keystones for economic development and all people, including the poor, have the right to access drinking water and sanitation services. He said water, sanitation and poverty are linked, as the diseases brought on by poor quality of drinking water and inadequate sanitation facilities mean that people lose income opportunities and incur increased health costs. “Improving access to water and sanitation will help reduce Pakistan’s health burden,” he said.

Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT Professor Dr James Wescoat said landscape planning has an increasing role to play in helping expand household and neighbourhood water and sanitation solutions to rural and urban areas. “Environmental design has played a vital role in linking water and health, from Mohenjo Daro to Boston,” he said.

Addressing the Symposium via the Internet from India, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of the Sulabh Sanitary Movement, said low-cost sanitation technology is available and by adopting these technologies, any country can improve the sanitation sector. Sharing his experience of introducing a two-pit pour flush toilet that uses only 1-1.5 litres of water, he said that the technology is flexible and affordable and can be implemented at costs starting from USD 30, depending on the quality.

AKU’s Dr Iqtidar A Khan said that in Pakistan 90 percent of water is used for agriculture and less than 10 percent for drinking and sanitation. He said the water availability has fallen from 5,000 cubic metres per capita in the early 1950s to less than 1,500 cubic metres today. Quoting the words of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, he said that AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other infectious diseases will not be defeated until the battles for safe drinking water, sanitation and basic health care are won.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg12_9