Pakistanis have better sanitation facilities than Indians

WORLD TOILET DAY

Islamabad

Pakistan might not be able to compete with the smart diplomatic moves and glittery Bollywood charms of India but in the world ranking of providing improved sanitation to its people, Pakistan is far ahead of the neighboring country.

According to the latest statistics shared in the WaterAid report titled ’Overflowing cities The State of the World’s Toilets 2016,’ released on the occasion of world Toilet Day falling on November 19, Pakistan is ranked seventh among the top 10 most-improved countries for reaching the most people in urban areas with safe, private toilets.

Others in the list include China at the top for reaching 9,137,000 people followed by Brazil, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Mexico, Pakistan, Argentina, Cambodia and Venezuela. Pakistan reached 1,226,000 people in urban areas with safe, private toilets.

Whereas, India topped 10 countries with the most urban-dwellers practicing open defecation by numbers. In India, 41,039,600 urban population practice open defecation followed by Indonesia, Nigeria, Philippines, Madagascar, Benin, Mozambique, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Russian Federation.

India also tops the list of top 10 countries with the most urban-dwellers without safe, private toilets. There are around 157,191,476 urban dwellers in India without this basic facility. Pakistan also joins the list at number 10 with 12,321,093 urban dwellers living in this situation. Other countries in the list include China, Nigeria, Indonesia, Russian Federation, Bangladesh, DR Congo, Brazil and Ethiopia.

The report highlights the challenges facing 700 million urban dwellers around the world living without sanitation; 12 million of them live in Pakistan. Despite improved ranking, the problem is so big for Pakistan that still a big number of more than 48,000 people living in Pakistan’s towns and cities have no choice but to defecate in the open using roadsides, railway tracks and even plastic bags dubbed ‘flying toilets’.

The report says that Pakistan’s towns and cities are growing so fast that by 2050 it is estimated that more than half the population will be urban. Today, there are nine cities with populations over 1 million people. While Pakistan has made considerable progress, stark inequalities remain, and the poorest are still being left behind.

The inability of urban areas to provide enough employment, housing and services to newcomers from rural areas pushes up slum growth rates and inflames tensions between different ethnic and social groups. The proportion of urbanites living without a toilet has halved since 1990, but the diarrhoea resulting from the ongoing crisis contributes to the deaths of more than 22,000 children every year. Around 45 per cent of children under five are stunted.

However, the positive sign is that Pakistan is making progress in helping its urban population gain access to a toilet. Since 1990 the proportion of urbanites living without sanitation has halved, and it now also ranks seventh in the world for the country making the most progress in reaching urban populations with toilets. In urban areas, Pakistan has reached 26.5 million people with sanitation since 2000 and the number of people living without a toilet has dropped by 1.2 million.

The report says that high population density of urban areas means that diseases spread fast in the absence of good sanitation. One child dies every two minutes from diarrhoeal diseases caused by dirty water, poor sanitation and hygiene. Globally 159 million children under five have their physical and cognitive development stunted; many of such cases are caused from repeated bouts of diarrhoea attributed to dirty water, poor sanitation and lack of hygiene.

According to the report, war-ravaged South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, is the worst country in the world for urban sanitation by percentage where 84 per cent of urbanites have no access to a toilet and every other urban-dweller there practises open defecation.

Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria, is falling furthest behind in reaching its urban population with a toilet. For every urban-dweller reached with sanitation since 2000, two were added to the number living without, an increase of 31 million people in the past 15 years.

Fast-growing China is making the most progress in reaching its urban population with sanitation. It’s managed to build toilets faster than the pace of new arrivals, reaching 329 million people since 2000, and outpacing population growth by 9 million.

The report concludes that for most of humanity, the future will unfold in towns and cities. The world’s urban areas are growing at breathtaking speed, and so too are the inequalities within them. In these circumstances, your neighbour’s problems can easily become your problems too. All too quickly, a disease spread by poor sanitation in one area can kill a child living in luxury a stone’s throw away. An outbreak can rapidly become a city-wide, national or international epidemic.

The WaterAid has called for more investment in water and sanitation. It recommends governments, supported by donor agencies, to provide adequate sanitation, hygiene and clean water for urban populations, by dramatically increasing financing and building the strong institutions that deliver sanitation and water services.