SANITATION SANS SYSTEMS

JUST about the entire developing world  -that totally and very much includes Pakistan-  find itself right at the  bottom of the pile when it comes to a whole gamut of community health issues.

If anything, the developing world's record in terms of access to basic sanitation seems to be slipping further. For example :

Pakistan is currently ranked *the seventh worst country, sinking three places from last year. Despite, the living and breathing of such misery officials are only now, attempting to do something of some worth, to stop the slide.

The figures say it all: Upto 42% of the country's population remains without access to basic sanitation.

Sanitation Charity WaterAid estimates that 79 million lack access to a decent toilet, while 37 percent  have no system for wastewater disposal at all.

On a global scale, hundreds of  millions of people around the world are affected by public sanitation.

Lack of  proper sanitation exposes large segments of the population to highly contagious diseases and undermines public health in unimaginable ways.

It is time that the authorities the world over, especially the developing world, woke up from their slumber and diverted a lot more attention to the issue.

The severity of the crisis demands an immediate shift of  focus.

Experts don't expect any improvement in the situation until the government takes ownership of the  sanitation problems and maximize its efforts to address these as a priority.

The key, at this point is to improve funding and allocate additional resources to tackle sanitation and wastewater problems.

Such an effort is crucial to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals for sanitation and wastewater management.

The objective of these goals is to ensure that most individuals and households have access to a  safely-manged, household toilet by the year 2030.

Most of all both India and Pakistan need to devise and develop systems to ensure that human waste is contained, transported, treated and disposed of in a safe and sustainable way.

The World Students Society thanks The Express tribune for the editorial.