ISLAMABAD Waterborne diseases - diarrhea and typhoid - cost the national exchequer 1.8 per cent of GDP, Rs120 billion, annually because of poor access of almost all citizens to safe drinking water and better sanitation.
This dark picture was painted at a two-day 'Pakistan conference on sanitation' here on Thursday. The conference was organised by the Ministry of Environment in collaboration with Water and Sanitation Programme, Unicef and other organisations with the aim of creating awareness and sensitising for mainstreaming sanitation across sectors, ministries/departments, institutions and socio-political persuasions so that it was prioritised in their programmes and policies.
The gathering on the occasion learnt that Pakistan's progress in achieving sanitation coverage was in danger of being undermined by numerous factors. 'Half of our latrines may not be sanitary or worse and large proportion of human waste is being discharged into the environment. Our systems for waste-water disposal and solid waste management are inadequate acting as transfer systems rather than treatment systems,' said Environment Minister Hameedullah Jan Afridi in his observations.
Only 50 per cent of urban solid waste is collected and only a fraction of that is disposed of in a sanitary manner, he said, adding that similarly only 50 per cent of wastewater was collected and less than 10 per cent was effectively treated.
The participants were told that at the policy level, the Pakistan National Sanitation Policy not only brought sanitation issue to the fore, but encouraged partnerships and innovation which signaled an important shift from supply side projects to a demand driven movement.
'The situation is becoming precarious as water availability in Pakistan has decreased from 5,000 cubic meters per capita in 1950s to 1,000 m3 in 2008, mainly because of increase in population, inefficient irrigation, corruption, mismanagement and unequal water rights,' says an Asian Development Bank report.
The quality of the living environment for the majority of Pakistan's population remains poor. Only 36 per cent of households had tap water supply in 2006-7. The differences between urban and rural areas are stark in this regard - 62 per cent of urban households had access to tap water, compared to only 22 per cent of rural households.
Today 12 per cent of the population has no access to improved water sources while 40 per cent are without sanitation facilities, consuming polluted drinking water. This increases incidence of waterborne diseases. Pakistan's water crisis has several serious health, social, and political implications. Budget allocation for water supply and sanitation amounts to less than 0.2 per cent of GDP.
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