Islamabad
The Shifa Foundation has installed more than 90 water hand-pumps in the districts of Umerkot, Sanghar and Jamshoro – Thar region.
These hand-pumps are providing water to about 300 households benefitting more than 45,000 people. Earlier, the people of these areas used to spend 4-6 hours on average to fetch 50 to 60 litres of water from dug-wells, which is not fit for drinking. Now they get sufficient quantity of clean drinking water from these hand pumps near their homes.
Thar is the largest desert of Pakistan, with a population of 1.2 million people living in extreme deprivation of basic necessities. The deadly combination of drought, famine and malnutrition left the people of Thar in misery and distress. The extreme scarcity of water forced the people to drink water from dug-wells and natural reservoirs which is often contaminated, causing fatal diseases and malnutrition. Children and women are the most affected in the community.
The Safe Water campaign of Shifa Foundation has emerged as a source of relief for the people of rural areas of Thar Desert.
The Shifa Foundation said it is committed to install 50 more hand-pumps in Umerkot in 2018. Apart from providing the water facilities, the Shifa Foundation has also treated children and women suffering from severely acute malnutrition in the villages of Umerkot, Sanghar, Jamshoro and Tharparkar.