A travesty, mind you, that is solvable
Being an avid fan of the cinema, I recently had the opportunity to watch Mad Max: Fury Road at the IMAX. Having fed my thirst for non-stop action, the movie also had subtle nuances, which highlighted the crisis of water scarcity and the importance of water in a community. You hear people talk about water wars in the future and as years pass by, the possibility of that happening seems like harsh reality. The antagonist in the movie, Immortan Joe, singlehandedly controls the provision of water. A comparison can be drawn in relation to Immortan Joe with companies like Nestle who own almost 70 per cent of bottled water brands.
The United Nations General Assembly issued a resolution (64/292) in 2010 on the importance of water as a basic human right. The resolution further stresses upon focusing on providing safe drinking water and sanitation by properly implementing other international legal instruments such as the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). Article 11 of CESCR provides a right to an adequate standard of living with clean access to water as the condition for the enjoyment of that right.
UNICEF works for the improvement of water and sanitation in Pakistan with the ministry of water and power, Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), provincial and local government departments, international and local NGOs and other UN agencies
The Resolution states, “Approximately 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water and that more than 2.6 billion do not have access to basic sanitation, and that approximately 1.5 million children under five years of age die and 443 million school days are lost each year as a result of water- and sanitation-related diseases.”
Pakistan, on the other hand, used to be a water-rich country a couple of decades ago, but now has over 44 per cent of its population without access to safe drinking water and sanitation and the number is much higher in rural areas. It is estimated that more than 40,000 children die of diarrheal infections every year. Women and children in rural areas have to travel long distances to get to water that is mostly contaminated, which in turn is one of the factors that leads to poverty. The drinking of un-safe water has a trickledown effect as it causes other water borne illnesses, decreased working days and less children attending school because they have to help their mothers get water.
UNICEF works for the improvement of water and sanitation in Pakistan with the ministry of water and power, Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), provincial and local government departments, international and local NGOs and other UN agencies.
The water and power ministry’s water development projects have seen their allocations reduced from Rs46 billion to Rs31.2 billion. However, the power sector allocation to the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) has been increased to Rs112.2 billion in the new budget including Rs45 billion for the LNG-fired power projects.
Local and international NGOs are working in Pakistan to alleviate the crisis of water and sanitation for years. Oxfam is one example of an organisation which works with other organisations to eliminate poverty and suffering around the world. It started operating in Pakistan in 1973 and is affiliated with multiple local NGOs at all times.
We will see this issue of the water crisis blow up in our lifetimes and to continue to not only ignore it, but to provide contaminated water or to not provide water at all is a mass death sentence to every Pakistani community that is plagued/marred by this travesty
The NGO sector in Pakistan plays a big role in providing relief to people who need it most. The new initiative taken up by the government after they closed operations of Save the Children in Islamabad to re-register all local and international NGOs may prove to be devastating for some organisations who have worked for years on fixing crises. Local as well as International NGOs have their hands on more than one project at a time and if their status as a performing NGO is revoked due to “national security” reasons, then it may pose a problem. The government needs to create a fine balance and approach it very carefully because a lot of NGOs are doing exceptional work by bringing out a positive change. Apart from NGOs, a few corporations are spearheading similar campaigns on providing access to safe drinking water as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. Such efforts should not only be allowed but also facilitated in hope of a better future.
We will see this issue of the water crisis blow up in our lifetimes and to continue to not only ignore it, but to provide contaminated water or to not provide water at all is a mass death sentence to every Pakistani community that is plagued/marred by this travesty. A travesty, mind you, that is solvable. It is only a matter of devising, and subsequently implementing, a particular feasible strategy.
