WASH news Asia & Pacific

Balochistan’s land is “highly degraded” due to over-grazing, illegal logging and other factors. Water scarcity is at the root of the problem. Annual precipitation ranges from 50 to 500mm, with much of Balochistan lying outside the monsoon zone, and evaporation rates are extremely high.

“No government has thought of the people, or put in place schemes to provide them with safe water or other facilities,” said Farid Ahmed, provincial coordinator for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, in Balochistan.

For the past 40 years, Janum Bibi (50) has walked daily from her village, about 20km from Quetta, to a small pond to fetch water. But now, water from the pond has become more brackish than ever before. “We know this water can make the children ill. But what choice do we have? There is hardly any other water available here,” she said.

Many other families in Balochistan suffer a similar plight, and as a result, water-borne disease is endemic. International aid agencies, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), have reported that country-wide two million children aged under-five die each year due to water-borne illnesses such as dysentery or typhoid.

In Balochistan, the situation is aggravated by a severe scarcity of water, which means some women walk 10km or more each day to obtain a single container that must meet all the needs of their families.

Read more: IRIN, 15 Apr 2008