MPAs vow efforts to include water and sanitation subject in school curriculum

Sindh lawmakers belonging to various political parties on Friday expressed the commitment to campaign for including the subject of clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in the school curriculum.

More than 35 members of the Sindh Assembly, belonging to the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the Muttahdia Qaumi Movement and the Grand Democratic Alliance, attended an event titled “Briefing on Right to Water and Sanitation”, organised by Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) at a local hotel.

The speakers agreed that Pakistan lagged behind in the provision and access to quality water, sanitation and hygiene. Nadeem Ahmed, The WaterAid’s manager for policy and advocacy, informed the parliamentarians that Pakistan was among the world’s 36 most water-stressed counties in the world.

“Per capita annual water availability has dropped from 5,600 cubic meters to 1,017 cubic meters in Pakistan. Average 84-89 per cent of water supplied is unsafe in Pakistan. One out of three schools has no drinking water in Pakistan. Two out of every five schools are missing a toilet in Pakistan. Twenty-three per cent of households have a garbage collection system in Pakistan,” he said.

Seventy-nine million people in Pakistan lacked decent sanitation and about 92 per cent of wastewater was untreated and went directly to water bodies, Ahmed added. Raheema Panhwar, the SPO Karachi Regional Coordinator, said that the objective of the event was to orient the Sindh government’s policymakers with critical state of affairs in the WASH sector towards initiating legislative and government actions for the recognition and delivery of the WASH rights in the province, especially for the most vulnerable and marginalised segments of society.

“Sindh has been observing rapid urbanisation and influx to cities and towns without adequate municipal services enabling masses to cope with the demand, especially with the mushroom growth of new housing schemes, industrial estates and commercial zones in urban centers,” she said.

The Sindh province was suffering unacceptably high child mortality rates and high nutritional deficiency among children, she said.

The Sindh Assembly members said that the current government and political parties recognised water and sanitation rights in its first line of the manifesto. They emphasised the implementation of the Sindh Drinking Water Policy 2017, Sindh Sanitation Policy 2017, Sindh Local Government Act 2013, Sindh Environment Protection Act, 2014, Sindh Behaviour Change Communication Strategy (Draft), Sindh Solid Waste Management Board Act, 2014, and Sindh WASH Sector Development Plan 2016-26.