‘Over 53,000 children die from diarrhoeal disease every year’

Deputy Speaker Sindh Assembly Rehana Laghari has emphasised the need and importance of women's participation and involvement in the process of sustaining the services.

She was addressing an event to celebrate the Open Defecation Free (ODF) attainment of Taluka Mirpur Sakro, housing 247,000 people in 14 rural union councils. The local government of District Thatta in Collaboration with WaterAid and National Rural Support Programme organised the event on Friday.

“Despite this significant achievement, currently, as much as 21 million Pakistanis lack access to clean drinking water, and 70 million remain without access to improved sanitation; with a greater proportion of 31 percent in rural areas,” said Laghari.

More than 53,000 Pakistani children die every year from diarrheal disease mainly due to unsafe water, poor hygiene, and sanitation, and we need to change this situation, she said.

She also highlighted the need for constructing gender-friendly sanitation facilities in schools and public buildings. “Although Mirpur Sakro is declared ODF, it carries the responsibility not only to maintain the status of ODF but also to improve the sanitation facilities [toilets] that have been built. There is a need for the villagers to continue working hard to improve sanitation facilities at their disposal.”

Sharing the 10 years’ work of WaterAid in District Thatta, Arif Jabbar Khan, Country Director of WaterAid, said that open defecation in the district was recorded at 55 per cent, while with the efforts of all the stakeholders, the ratio currently stands at 24.4 per cent.

Through implementing partner, NRSP, WaterAid also constructed 82 community-managed water supply schemes, provided WASH facilities in 316 schools, trained 750 community resource persons (CRPs) on behaviour change tools and techniques, and in the process, 28,000 households built their latrines.

“We are also supporting the provincial and district government in mapping out all the public, private and institutional water supply schemes and a district level WASH data management system.”

Hadi Baksh Kalhoro, additional secretary local government, presented the future plan and vision of his department in continuing this movement forward and expanding the ODF coverage in the remaining three talukas of Thatta.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Thatta Riaz Hussain Leghari, Ejaz Ahmed Bhutto, additional director local government, and other speakers also spoke at the event, while representatives from the district health department, PEHD, social welfare, education, local government, PPHI, WaterAid, SRSO, HANDS, RSPN, NRSP, community representatives and media persons attended the event.