Federal Minister for Environment Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi has said that Pakistan is paying heavy price of neglect in water and sanitation sector as the diseases – diarrhoea and typhoid - due to these two factors cost the national exchequer 1.8% of the GDP which is Rs. 120 billion (US$ 1.5 billion = € 1.1 billion) annually. The Ministry of Environment in Pakistan is working on a comprehensive plan to launch ‘Saaf Suthra (clean) Pakistan Programme’ that envisages total sanitation all across the country to achieve the Millennium Development Goal targets. Sources at the ministry told APP that allocations would be made for the programme over the next five years to achieve the total sanitation target.

“The ‘Saaf Suthra Pakistan Programme’ will have a phased approach for creating demand through communication and capacity development units in each province,” sources said. Experts at the two-day Pakistan Conference on Sanitation said a few days earlier that Rs. 12.5 billion (US$ 155 million = € 111 million) would be allocated to execute the programme over the next five years. Other features of the programme include:

• setting up of ‘Rural Sanitation Marts’ in selected tehsils (divisions),
• provision of revolving funds and micro-finance,
• special consideration for the poorest of the poor, and
• coverage enhancement of public toilets.

See also: Call for Total Sanitation in Pakistan by 2015, WSSCC and the press releases issued by Pakistan’s Ministry of Environment on the PACOSAN here and here.

Related news:

• Pakistan: umbrella programme on water, sanitation and hygiene planned, Source South Asia, 20 May 2009
• Pakistan: on track to meet MDG target for sanitation, draft National Drinking Water Policy on the way, Source South Asia, 07 Nov 2008

Related web site: Wikipedia - Water supply and sanitation in Pakistan

Source: The News, Pakistan, 31 May 2009

Tags: advocacy, policies & legislation, sanitation, south asia