According to a World Bank report, titled ‘When Water becomes a Hazard: The State of Water Supply, Sanitation and Poverty in Pakistan and its Impact on Child Stunting’, one in two children in Sindh is suffering from stunted growth. The timely report reveals how much ground Pakistan needs to cover on an issue that Prime Minister Imran Khan has called one of his government’s main priorities. Poor sanitation and water supply as well as poverty combine to create a situation where almost 38 percent of children suffer from stunted growth. This means that four out of 10 children in Pakistan are unable to reach their full growth potential, and suffer from longer-term illness and poor health throughout their lives. Pakistan ranks amongst those countries that have the highest rates of childhood stunting, which goes against claims made of massive reduction in poverty under previous governments. Statistics say that poverty came down from 64 percent in 2001 to 30 percent in 2014. If such a large number of children remain malnourished, it shows that food poverty is widespread and that the metrics being used are undervaluing real poverty in the country.
It is also worrying that the report notes that progress on this matter remains slow and uneven. Water has been declared another priority area for the current government – but the focus has been on big projects rather than repairing a water supply system where over 90 percent of drinking water was found to be contaminated. The good news is that Pakistan has made progress on reducing poverty, improving dietary diversity and reducing open defecation. However, the rates of diarrhoea and stunting amongst children show no improvement. Rural areas continue to lag behind urban areas, despite the fact that they are crucial to the production of food.
There is also a serious need to question the statistics provided by the government. The highest rates of poverty reduction are shown in districts that the WB report insists continue to show high rates of childhood stunting. There is simply no way of reconciling the two numbers without admitting one of them is wrong – and it is more likely to be the numbers around poverty. There are a number of low-cost options available to solving much of the issues around water supply – if the government wants to prioritise the issue. If not, the numbers are likely to get scarier as time passes.