Perveen Rahman, director of the Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training Institute (OPP-RTI), was shot dead in Karachi, Pakistan, on Wednesday 13 March 2013. The internationally acclaimed and widely replicated project that she led, succeeded in bringing low-cost sanitation to Karachi's Orangi squatter community of 1 million people.
Ms Rahman's associates believe her death was linked to her work on exposing Karachi's…
Millions remain without proper sanitation in flood-affected Pakistan.
“Sanitation is ‘the invisible problem’ in disaster relief and by highlighting the problem, behaviour change happens,” according to Bill Fellows, the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) global cluster coordinator working with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the WASH cluster lead agency.
Hygiene is four times as important as clean drinking water for preventing diarrheal disease according to research published in The Lancet medical journal [1]. Whilst in flood devastated Pakistan, access to clean drinking water is on the rise, thanks to the efforts of WASH cluster member agencies, with 2.5 million people receiving clean drinking water every day, the attention to sanitation has become critical in preventing disease outbreaks.
UNICEF, in cooperation with the government, is implementing hygiene education in relief camps through a “no open defecation campaign”. “This is based on a system developed in Bangladesh and helps affected communities take a first step to achieve basic sanitation in disaster affected communities”, said Fellows.
In addition, the hygiene education campaign includes teaching flood survivors to build open pit latrines. As part of the flood relief efforts 2,723 emergency latrines have been built, benefitting 40,000 people.
Female health workers and Pakistan Red Crescent volunteers are also on the frontline of hygiene education, which is one of the most critical components in reducing water-borne disease. To date, these volunteers have helped educate almost 750,000 people on the benefits of good hygiene.
To compliment hygiene education, soap and hygiene kits are needed. UNICEF reports 400,000 hygiene kits are in the pipeline along with three million bars of soap.
“It is crucial in disaster response that flood affected communities receive latrines and soap, as well as hygiene education to prevent illness and disease”, said Manuel Bessler, Head of the Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Pakistan.
In addition to water and sanitation flood relief activities, UNICEF and its partners are engaged in an integrated approach to provide humanitarian assistance to millions of flood survivors through health and nutrition, child protection, education and prevention of child trafficking.
[1] The same conclusion can be found in a recent article by Cairncross et al. in the International journal of epidemiology
Read the latest Pakistan Floods WASH-related news on ReliefWeb
Related web site: Global WASH Cluster
Source: ReliefWeb, 14 Sep 2010
Posted in Emergencies, Hygiene promotion, On-site sanitation, Pakistan
Tagged floods, Global WASH Cluster, UNICEF
[In the first week of the crisis, Oxfam was] delivering clean water to almost 100,000 people made homeless by catastrophic flooding in Pakistan.
In four of the worst affected areas of the Khyber Paktankhwa (formally NWFP) and Punjab Province, Oxfam and partners [repaired] damaged water systems and trucking drinking water to those stranded or displaced from their homes.
Oxfam’s Country Director Neva Khan said:
“We are providing water purification sachets to people who are reduced to drinking from ponds and dirty standing water. At the same time, we are training people on how to clean the water and how to stay as hygienic as possible in such a chaotic and dangerous environment.”
After the bilateral Strategic Dialogue meeting in Islamabad on 19 July 2010, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a multi-year Signature Water Program for Pakistan to improve Pakistan’s ability to increase efficient management and use of its scarce water resources and improve water distribution. The first phase of the program will cover seven projects costing over US$ 270 million, including:
Four other projects focus on irrigation while the 7th project on Expert Consultations involves the funding of a professional exchange visit by Pakistani experts in water management to the U.S. to meet with counterparts and to examine cost recovery and policy mechanisms that incentivize private sector investment in the water sector.
The Signature Water Program is one of a series of new US-funded aid projects in Pakistan worth US$ 500 million. The projects are part of a five-year US$ 7.5 billion aid package agreed by the US Congress in 2009.
Correspondents say the deal is part of Washington’s attempts to counter anti-US sentiment in Pakistan.
Source: U.S. Department of State, 19 Jul 2010 ; BBC News, 19 Jul 2010
Posted in Financing, Pakistan, Water supply
Tagged irrigation, Signature Water Program, urban sanitation, urban water supply, USA
More than 300 industries located in the Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate (SITE) in District West are facing hardships because of a shortfall in water supply from the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB).
‘’Due to the water shortage, more than 50 per cent of export industries are closed and more are on the verge of closure. Despite repeated requests to the MD of KW&SB, no improvement is seen in water supply to the biggest industrial estate of the country,’’ Chairman SITE Association, Salim Parekh, said in a letter sent to the Sindh governor on Monday.
As per schedule, KW&SB is bound to supply water continuously without a break, for 12 hours daily, but what is happening is that the supply hours have dropped to three to four hours, and that also with interruption of one hour. As a result, pressure of water goes down to zero and takes one to two hours for building up the pressure,’’ he stated.
Allocated quota of water fixed by the government is eight million gallons a day (MGD) but the SITE area is receiving hardly 2.5-3 MGD and that is also at a low pressure. As a result of that, industries are getting meagre supply of water and are on the edge of closure.
‘’Even the SITE fire brigade station does not have enough water to extinguish the fires erupted from time to time in industries due to which the fire engulfs an entire industry and losses reach in millions besides fatal and non-fatal injuries to firemen and workers working in the factory,” he added.
Source: Express Tribune, 13 Jul 2010
Corrupt politicians allow businessmen to siphon off as much as 41% of the city’s water supply and turn around and sell it at exorbitant rates to residents, generating an estimated $43 million a year.
Name a cash cow in this sprawling city of ragged slums and glass-walled office buildings and it’s almost certain there’s an organized crime syndicate behind it.
The illegal operations, routinely referred to as mafias, are everywhere. There’s a land mafia that commandeers prime real estate, a sugar mafia that conspires to control sugar prices, and even a railway mafia that forges train tickets and pilfers locomotive parts.
For those on the city’s bottom rung, however, the underworld entity they revile the most is the water tanker mafia, a network of trucking firms that teams up with corrupt bureaucrats to turn water into liquid gold worth tens of millions of dollars each year.
The water tanker mafia’s prey can be found in slums like Karachi’s Gulshan-Sikanderabad neighborhood, where every morning people buy water from the tankers, lug the plastic jugs back to their homes on wooden carts, then come back three or four more times in the afternoon and evening to buy more.
A family that makes $100 a month can spend as much as a quarter of that on water, which, elsewhere in Pakistan, costs pennies and flows out of household taps.
Water scarcity isn’t the cause. Karachi has a steady water supply, and it has the network of pipes to pump ample water into every neighborhood, rich and poor.
But Karachi is also a city of opportunists forever on the prowl for under-the-table wealth. As municipal officials look the other way, businessmen illegally tap water mains, and use the makeshift hydrants to supply fleets of tankers that then sell water to businesses, factories and neighborhoods at inflated prices. As many as 272 million gallons a day are siphoned off by the trucks.
On a recent sunbaked afternoon, along a dirt lane filled with goats munching on piles of refuse, Momin Khan seethed as he filled another blue jug with water from a cistern replenished every other day by the water tankers.
“We’re poor laborers — we can’t spare this much for water,” said Khan, 27, a glass factory worker. “The water supply lines come right into this neighborhood, but there’s never any water. So I buy the same water that I should be getting through the pipes for free. I’ve got no choice.”
Karachi has nine hydrant locations where water supply companies can legally buy water and fill their tanker trucks. But scattered throughout the city are at least 160 illegal hydrants, said Ashraf Sagar, manager of the Orangi Pilot Project, a private organization that researches water issues in Karachi.
The siphoning takes place around the clock, Sagar said. It’s done in the dead of night, but also in broad daylight.
Along Manghopir Road, a bustling Karachi avenue lined with grease-covered car repair stalls and appliance storefronts, it’s easy to find a pair of tanker drivers standing on top of their trucks, filling up with a large blue hose from an illegal hydrant inside a red-brick building. Armed guards keep outsiders from meddling.
On average, a tanker fills up six times a day, Sagar said, siphoning as much as 41% of the city’s daily water supply, an amount that generates $43 million annually for tanker owners, according to Orangi.
“With this much money involved, it’s clear these are very wealthy people,” Sagar said. “They’re powerful mafias colluding with corrupt people in the government. So there’s really nothing ordinary Pakistanis can do to stop it.”
Shahnawaz Jadoon, a deputy administrative chief for the Gulshan-Sikanderabad neighborhood, said it was virtually impossible to clamp down on an enterprise that combines the clout of city government and the wealth of Karachi’s powerful business circles.
At times, illegal hydrants are shut down by city officials, only to reopen a week later. Activists said they didn’t know of anyone involved ever being arrested.
“The big reason why people don’t get the water they’re supposed to,” said Jadoon, “is that if they did, this whole system, the tanker mafia and this corrupt network, would shut down.”
See also: Pakistan: Karachi water shortage, IRIN, 16 Jan 2002
Source: Alex Rodriguez, LA Times, 16 Mar 2010
Posted in Pakistan, Transparency
Tagged corruption, S1004, urban water supply, water mafia, water shortage, water tankers
A recent Gilani poll conducted by Gallup Pakistan shows that more than two thirds of all Pakistanis (71%) have complained about insufficient water supply by citing that the problem of water supply in their area is severe or at least somewhat serious. The remaining respondents claim they do not face water supply problems in their area (25%) or gave no response (4%).
The recent Gilani poll was conducted in Pakistan by Gallup Pakistan, affiliated with Gallup International Association, among a sample of 2723 men and women from rural and urban areas of all four provinces of the country, during April 2010.
Source: Gallup PakistanAPP, 10 May 2010
Procter & Gamble’s Safeguard brand and Save the Children announced their new partnership to reach 100 primary schools in Pakistan through a school health and hygiene project. The project will benefit 40,000 school age children in Quetta, Karachi and Lahore with improved sanitation facilities and health and hygiene education.
Through this partnership, Safeguard and Save the Children aim to address the incidence of common illnesses arising from poor sanitation facilities in school children, and empower Pakistani children to adopt healthy habits through health education and improved access to handwashing, toilet and water supply facilities. The overall aim is to enable children and their families to adopt better health and hygiene habits in the long-term.
Safeguard appeals to Pakistani mothers to help improve the lives of less affluent children. Every bar of Safeguard bought from October 2009 to March 2010 will contribute towards building handwashing, toilet and water supply facilities in Pakistani schools where children do not have access today.
Speaking at the launch press conference, Chief Guest, Minister of Health, Sindh, Dr. Sagheer Ahmed stated, “Today, we are very proud that the private sector has stepped up and extended their full support to the critical issue of sanitation and hygiene, which will greatly help the cause of improving the health of Pakistan. According to estimates, water, sanitation and hygiene related diseases cost Pakistan’s economy about Rs 112 billion per year and over Rs 300 million a day in terms of health cost and lost earnings. Through this partnership, Safeguard and Save the Children have marked the critical importance of adopting healthy and hygienic habits through enabling access to improved sanitation facilities. We would like to thank the Safeguard and Save the Children teams for leading this initiative that has the potential to save millions of Pakistani lives.”
[...] Mubashara Khalid, the Brand Manager for Safeguard in Pakistan, also stated at the event: “Every day, 670,000 children miss school due to illnesses. According to the Karachi Soap Health Study (2002) led by the Center for Disease Control (USA), HOPE and P&G, regular handwashing with soap can reduce the incidence of diarrhea and common illnesses by up to 50 percent. [...] We will be building these facilities this year, and are committed to provide sustainable maintenance to these facilities for the years to come.”
Safeguard has empowered over 6 million children in more than 17,000 Pakistani schools through Sehat-o-Safai, the largest school health and hygiene awareness campaign in the country. To reinforce its commitment to health and hygiene, Safeguard is making this sustainable long term investment to improve the lives of Pakistani children and to instill the message of the importance of handwashing with soap. The Safeguard team will be educating 40,000 children through this partnership, and about 1.5 million children overall through the Sehat-o-Safai program this year.
Source: PR Log / 03 Nov 2009
The Ministry of Environment has finalised the standards for drinking water [...] as part of the National Action Plan to implement the National Drinking Water Policy approved by the Federal Cabinet in September 2009.
Sources mentioned the absence of the environment minister [following the resignation of Hamidullah Jan Afridias] the reason for delay in the notification of the standards, as they are to be approved by the Environment Council.
Director General Environment Javed Ali Khan [said] that the ministry is moving fast to prepare an action plan, as it has already asked the provinces to prepare their strategies in line with the National Drinking Water Policy.
“We are preparing the Action Plan while the standards are ready for approval and notification thereafter,” he said. “The ministry consulted all stakeholders to identify the permissible purity level and these standards will be implemented across the country once approved by the Council,” he said.
To a question regarding the working mechanism, the DG said under the Action Plan, a monitoring mechanism would be strengthened, the data of water purification would be prepared regularly and the capacity of various departments would be built to ensure proper purification.
“It will be a long term and multi-dimensional strategy where different methods will be exploited to purify drinking water,” he said. “Curtailing pollutants to a permissible limit is our top priority and we are focusing on it,” he said.
He mentioned installation of purification plants at large water storages and use of medication method to purify water at small-scale storages like overhead tanks and pipe water. “A continuous water testing mechanism will also be in place once the plan enters the implementation phase,” he said.
{B]illions of rupees [are lost] every year due to water borne diseases. According to a World Bank report, water and sanitation related diseases alone cost the kitty Rs120 billion [US$ 1.44 billion] annually in terms of poor health and ailment.
Source: The News, 19 Nov 2009
Posted in Pakistan, Policies & legislation, Water quality
ADB Water for All Asia
