‘Pakistan lagging behind in meeting SDGs’

Expressing concern that the country is lagging behind in meeting the goal of ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all under the Sustainable Development Goals, activists have said Karachi is not only facing water shortage but also highest water supply contamination score.

Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, Dr Bilquis Rehman, president of the Council for Participatory Development, said that it is the prime responsibility of the government to provide its citizens safe drinking water. “Though under the SDGs Goal 6, the government has committed to achieving the set targets for giving safe drinking water and sanitation. But nothing has improved in these three years after the initiation of new set goals under SDGs 2030,” she said.

She added that country was already off track in meeting these targets. “Everyday newspapers are filled with water issues and people’s woes can be heard on every corner of the street in Karachi, but authorities have been showing no interest in resolving the issues,” Rehman said.

Kashif Bajeer, Child Rights Movement Sindh’s Provincial Coordinator, said that political parties must work to mainstream sustainable development within the national discourse. “Their manifestos might highlight social and economic issues, but ensuring they are SDG compliant would shape the electoral debate to specificity rather than broad rhetorical pledges,” he said. “National and provincial assemblies can also lead this process, particularly since the federal government has already created a non-partisan parliamentary taskforce comprising national and provincial parliamentarians and have allocated funds.”