Pay more attention to WASH sector, AWARE asks govt

The Association for Water, Applied Education & Renewable Energy (AWARE), a non-governmental organisation of Umerkot, has initiated a campaign in collaboration with the Freshwater Action Network South Asia Pakistan and other civil society organisations by sending letters and cards to authorities concerned, demanding them to give priority to the Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) sector that is in dire need of improvement.
The volunteers sent cards to the departments concerned, including the Sindh Public Health Engineering Department, Thar Taluka Municipal Administration, Sindh chief minister, President Asif Ali Zardari, chief justice of Pakistan, Sindh Assembly members and National Assembly members.
AWARE Executive Director Ali Akbar Rahimoon said 5-9 feet of stagnant floodwater is affecting six union councils (UCs) of Umerkot district – Satriyo, Arharo Bhurgari and Samaro of Samaro taluka, and Sher Khan Chandio, Talhi and Nabisar of Kunri taluka.
He said, “People are living in miserable conditions and there is no alternate source of potable water in the submerged area. The stagnant water is an obstruction in the rehabilitation of 200,000 displaced persons. Moreover, no crops can be cultivated in these areas as well. People are using irrigation water for drinking.”
He deplored the fact that the emergency declared by the Pakistani government and the United Nations was withdrawn on December 31, but there is still an emergency situation in Umerkot.
On the banks of canals, people have no other option but to use the available space or canal banks for urination and defecation, resulting in contamination of the water sources, he said.
He urged the authorities concerned to take immediate notice of the situation and take significant measures.
An AWARE study conducted in three of the worst flood-affected UCs of Umerkot revealed that 87 percent of the water sources are highly contaminated and injurious to human health, as they include up to 92 percent of bacteriological contamination, up to 5,500 parts per million of total dissolved solids and up to 400 nephelometric turbidity units of turbidity in the water samples collected and analysed by the association.