Minister leaves for US to attend sanitation, water meetings

Islamabad

Federal Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid on Tuesday left for Washington DC, USA, to participate in Sanitation and Water for high-level meetings.

Among the meetings is one of the finance ministers convened by the World Bank on ‘Sanitation and Water for All partnership’ on April 20. It will be attended by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, too.

On April 19 and 20, a Sector Ministers’ Meeting (SMM) will be convened by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund involving those ministers responsible for water, sanitation and hygiene along with their finance counterparts.

Zahid Hamid will represent Pakistan in these meetings. At the ministerial meetings, participants will have the opportunity to engage in policy debate, exchange lessons learned and hold each other mutually accountable for progress on improving access to sanitation and drinking water for all. These ministerial meetings will build on previous SWA High-level Meetings of Ministers of Finance (in 2010, 2012, and 2014) and of Ministers responsible for Sanitation, Water and Hygiene (in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016).

The purpose of ministerial meetings is to raise awareness among ministers of the challenges of the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene), targets of the SDGs and the changes required to meet them, and follow-up and exchange learning on the building blocks of a strong sector (in terms of financing, institutions, capacity, planning, and policy and strategy) that support progress and development effectiveness in order to eliminate inequalities and achieve sustainable universal access.

Building on the previous Sanitation and Water High Level Meetings, SWA will bring together Ministers of Finance to consider the crucial issue of funding to achieve the sanitation, water and hygiene related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. Issues to be addressed will include how service producers can operate more effectively, improve governance and use their financing more efficiently to mobilize additional resources for the sector.

The 2016 Meeting was the first occasion for the sector to come together after the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were agreed. Countries and their partners will discuss national planning to meet the challenges of the water, sanitation and hygiene-related targets and required resources.