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Water is the driving force of all nature. Water is life and clean water means health. It is a great blessing of Allah and there is not a single living being on earth that can survive without water. Humans should rejoice this blessing and great efforts should be made to conserve it in its purest form.

As a standard, an adequate, reliable, clean, accessible, acceptable and safe drinking water supply has to be available for all communities. The United Nations (UN) declared access to safe drinking water as a fundamental human right and an essential step towards improving living standards. Access to water was one of the main goals of Millennium Development Goals and it is also one of the main goals of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN-SDG goal number 6 states that "water sustains life, but safe and clean drinking water defines civilization". Despite these facts, there are inequalities in access to safe drinking water in the world.

Various drinking water quality parameters set by the WHO are frequently violated in Pakistan, as mentioned in its various reports, the water supplied to people is contaminated and not fit for human consumption. Along with pathogenic microbes (bacteria and viruses) human activities like improper disposal of municipal and industrial wastes and indiscriminate applications of agrochemicals are the main factors contributing to the deteriorating water quality. According to a Third World Academy of Sciences report, contaminated water is killing more people than cancer, AIDS, wars or accidents. In order for water to be safe for human consumption, water must be free pathogens like bacteria, fungi and viruses which may cause diarrhoea, typhoid and cholera and several other diseases leading to dehydration, malnutrition, and even death. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 20 to 40 percent beds are occupied in the hospitals of Pakistan by patients suffering from water-related diseases. In another report, it has been mentioned that one-quarter of all people attending hospitals in Pakistan are ill from water-related diseases as a result of poor sanitation and lack of safe drinking water facilities.

Another major issue that developing communities such as Pakistan face on the path out of impoverishment is access to toilets. This is such a basic necessity that is often disassociated with the global water crisis due to harsh and unpleasant reality of the matter. In fact, 2.5 billion people still do not have access to basic sanitation in the world today. Approximately 40 percent of Southeast Asian population defecates in the open that raises health concerns and a major cause of spreading diseases within these communities. The WHO suggests that sanitation solutions can be simple, and efforts are being made to provide public health education to both urban and rural areas worldwide to teach families about pit toilets, composting, hand washing, wastewater management and water purification. In Pakistan, too, people lack adequate sanitation facilities, a problem that spans demographic variables of race, income-level and geographic areas, and with each passing year there is continued increases in urban populations, which means that tens of millions of people will suffer simply because they have no place to put their waste. Therefore, global outreach for water availability must go hand-in-hand with plans for adequate sanitation and public health education.

Pakistan is a signatory to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG 6, ie., clean water and sanitation aimed at providing safe drinking water to 95 percent of the population and access to safe sanitation to 72 percent of the population by the year 2030. Currently, the national base line for safe drinking water is 36 percent and for sanitation is zero percent. According to Water Aid report 2018, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Niger, Mozambique, India and Pakistan are among the countries where the highest percentage or largest number of people cannot get clean water within a half-hour round trip. In Pakistan, several agencies are now working to improve the current situation of water. One such venture is the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation by the WHO and UNICEF. Another such organisation is Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) which is a global organisation, recently launched in Pakistan, made up of members from leading businesses, non-profits, public sector agencies and academic institutions with the collective goal of promoting responsible use of water that is socially, economically and environmentally beneficial to all.

Ensuring universal access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030 needs that we invest in adequate infrastructure, provide sanitation facilities, and boost hygiene at every level. This situation demands a meaningful political commitment, ample government funding and adequate inter-sectoral approach towards water and sanitation systems. More international cooperation is also needed to encourage water efficiency and support treatment technologies in our country. Great efforts are needed from government, industry, academia, and non-governmental organisations in Pakistan to overcome the challenge of provision of safe drinking water and proper sanitation system. We should remember that the impact water has on our daily lives is often taken for granted. We must always remember how important water is to our wellness. It truly is the liquid of life!

(The writer is an Associate Professor at a private medical college in Lahore)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019


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