Question:
India’s huge and growing population is putting a severe strain on allof the country’s natural resources.

Most water sources are contaminated by sewage and agricultural runoff.

The World Bank estimates that 21% of communicable diseases in Indiaare related to unsafe water. In India, diarrhea alone causes more than1600 deaths each day.(1)—the same as if eight 200-person jumbo-jetscrashed to the ground each day.

Hygiene practices also continue to be a problem in India. Latrineusage is extremely poor in rural areas of the country; only 14% of therural population has access to a latrine.

Hand washing is also very low, increasing the spread of disease. Inorder to decrease the amount of disease spread through drinking-water,latrine usage and hygiene must be improved simultaneously.

Answer: One out of five persons in Pakistan does not have access to safe drinkingwater (in rural areas only one of two has access) and one out of three doesnot have access to proper sanitation. One consequence of this is that everymonth, one out of ten children in Pakistan suffers from diarrhoea.

UNICEF Pakistan's water and environmental sanitation programme aims tofoster a healthy environment at urban and rural household and communitylevels, by encouraging the use of household latrines, clean water and handwashing with soap.

UNICEF has launched a nation-wide awareness campaign on the construction anduse of latrines for family use. Provincial governments and communities areencouraged to view sanitation as a major priority. In selected districts inall four provinces, girls' primary schools, which had no sanitationfacilities, have now been provided with latrines. This reinforces the basichygiene education messages that are being given to school children. They aretaught the importance of the link between hygiene and good health, and theimportance of washing hands with soap.

In some rural areas, UNICEF's water and sanitation programme providesfinancial and technical support for the installation of low-cost watersupply schemes. Through training, the programme also improves the capacityof local authorities to monitor their water supply, believing that peoplehave the right to know about the quality of their water. UNICEF issupporting the Government of Pakistan, together with other partners, toensure water quality.