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Friday March 29, 2024

Unicef, partners committed to assisting government & communities in KP

By Bureau report
May 22, 2020

PESHAWAR: Rejecting the impression that there has been slackening in the commitment of Unicef and one of its partners Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) in the WASH sector in tribal districts, SRSP Syed Awlad Hussein, SRSP programme manager for the tribal districts, on Thursday said the fight against Covid-19 would continue.

“The publication of a news item has created an impression that there has been a slackening in the commitment of UNICEF and one of its partners SRSP in the WASH Sector in the tribal districts and taking up the fight against Covid-19 in the province. It had confused a change in strategy to adapt their working to the changed circumstances after Covid-19,” he lamented.

On the contrary, he said, after Covid-19, the partnership was working with a renewed zeal to help the government and communities in the region. He said that the decision to close down the projects in the tribal districts was carried out after intense discussions between SRSP and Unicef spanning over two months and it was not done abruptly.

A major component of the closed projects, he said, was community engagement which was not possible in the present circumstances without posing serious risks to the communities and the staff engaged on the projects. He said that the water supply schemes, which were being implemented through Public Health Engineering Department, had not been affected by this decision and would be completed on time in June under revised SOPs for the projects implemented with contractors.

Awlad Hussein said that the year 2000 marked the seventh year of partnership between the SRSP and Unicef to respond to needs in the WASH sector and a major objective of the partnership was to end open defecation in the province, particularly the tribal districts. The partnership has grown over the years and has reached over 900,000 individuals, including temporarily displaced persons, returnees and host communities.

Multiple WASH projects have been implemented starting from Tank, Kurram, Buner, Bannu, North and South Waziristan and Swabi. The partnership has also helped improve government capacities in the sector and services. The work was not restricted to WASH sector but was done as well in close collaboration with Health and Education Sectors to address different related issues.

The partnership supports the attainment of sustainable development goals in collaboration with the government. Elaborating, he said, under the partnership over 700 village sanitation committees have been built and 131.000 individuals have benefitted from rehabilitation capacities of drinking water projects.

Over 164,000 individuals have got access to sanitation facilities, 13,000 low cost latrines were constructed with communities help by provision of basic material and cash support.

More than 35,000 communities have been provided improved WASH facilities in schools; 75 Basic Health Units have been provided health and sanitation facilities; 205 latrines were constructed for people with special needs.

The official said awareness campaigns have regularly been carried out to support the sector. He said that the partnership was committed to helping people face the Covid-19 crisis which all communities are facing. A contingency agreement called Contingency Programme Cooperation Agreement has been signed with the SRSP in WASH Sector which enables the partners to respond in humanitarian emergencies as the present one.

This agreement is to go up to year 2022. It was recently activated to assist government efforts to respond to the Covid-19 crisis. Interventions have been undertaken in 15 major health care facilities in four high-risk districts like Peshawar, Mardan, Dera Ismail Khan and Kurram which has benefitted over 138 individuals through these interventions.

Awlad said that the changed circumstances called for adaption in all development programmes and donors strategies to meet the unforeseen circumstances and it was wrong to create the impression that there was any slackening in the commitment to this sector.