100 percent sanitation coverage for all by 2015: Afridi

Minister for Environment, Hamidullah Jan Afridi Thursday announced that there would be 100 per cent sanitation coverage by 2015, and stressed the need to devise a three pronged strategy to achieve this target. "If you ask me to set a target for 2015, I would propose 100 percent sanitation coverage for all by 2015," the minister said at his inaugural address to the first ever conference on Sanitation in Pakistan, the PACOSAN.
"In addition to MDG targets, I propose to set Pakistan specific targets for the year 2015," he added and urged the participants to prepare an action plan for achieving this target. He also urged the participants to take a wider view of how to achieve sanitation for all in a sustainable manner.
"For this we need to consider wider environmental impacts of initiatives and activities, institutional and fiscal incentives for changing behaviours, and partnership between communities, private sector and government," he added. "I will urge you all to design the action plan in a way that the performance can be measured at both the macro level and the local level," he said. "At the national level we will continue to rely on the results of the UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme."
He said the ministry was also in the process of preparing an Umbrella PC-1 for translating the sanitation policy into action, adding that the feedback during this conference would facilitate the preparation of an integrated programme on water, sanitation and hygiene.
Afridi however feared that Pakistan's progress in achieving sanitation coverage was in danger of being undermined by a number of factors as the data suggested that half of the latrines might not be sanitary. He said, "a large proportion of human waste is discharged into the environment as our systems for wastewater disposal and solid waste management are inadequate, and are acting as transfer systems rather than treatment systems."
"We know that only 50 percent of urban solid waste is collected, and only a fraction of that is disposed of in a sanitary manner. Similarly, only 50 percent of waste water is collected and less than 10 percent is effectively treated," he said.
Afridi said Pakistan was paying a heavy price for this neglect and the World Bank's Strategic Country Environmental Assessment indicated that the water borne diseases alone like diarrhoea and typhoid cost the exchequer 1.8 percent of the country's GDP or a staggering Rs 120 billion rupees.
He said Pakistan attached great importance to addressing the sanitation challenge and the momentum built-up through the first, second and third South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) would continue. The minister said "the National Sanitation Policy not only brings sanitation to the fore, but also encourages partnerships and innovation, and this signals an important shift from 'supply side' projects to a 'demand driven' movement."
He said there was need to develop strategies, programmes and partnerships to address the issues and challenges in the sanitation sector. Informing that Balochistan had prepared Provincial Sanitation Policy, the minister urged other provincial governments to set a time frame for the approval of provincial sanitation strategies.
He mentioned that Pakistan was on track to meet Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for sanitation and this conference should develop a National Sanitation Action Plan in line with the commitments under the Delhi Declaration arising from SACOSAN 3.
"This action plan will guide us in the implementation of the Delhi Declaration and the monitoring of progress in the lead up to SACOSAN-4 in Sri Lanka in 2010," he said. The minister rested great hopes with the participants of the conference to come up with a comprehensive plan for implementation of Sanitation Policy.