Rubab Nazar, Green Blogger.
Water and sanitation both have supreme
importance and go hand by hand in maintaining the healthy standard of
environment and life. Sanitation in a community has crucial role to ensure the
healthy lifestyle by good practices of cleanliness and hygiene. In environment,
water occurs in huge sources like rivers, oceans, lakes, dams and underground
water. Human Beings uptake this water to fulfill their demands for drinking,
household and industrial purposes. In the present world water has got
contaminated by various means and one has to think over it before consuming
water. Wastewater is generated during the industrial processes and is released
directly into the water bodies without treatment. This is resulting in the
depletion of clean water and also underground water is no more unpolluted.
Wastewater and solid waste is highly linked with sanitation. Facilities and
Services related to defecation must be improved especially in the third world
countries. Currently, urban areas have more improved sanitation facilities than
rural areas. There is also an alarming
threat that the world will face water scarcity soon because of its present over
usage. Pakistan has much dependence on water as agriculture makes huge
proportion of the country’s GDP. Besides all this, there are several diseases
associated with water and sanitation which have immense health effect.
There are total 17 Sustainable Development
Goals(SDGs) which were presented in United Nations General Assembly in 2015 and
these goals should be achieved by 2030 (Agenda 2030). All SDGs can lead the
world towards sustainability when they are brought in practice. SDG#6
highlights the importance of clean water and sanitation as the basic right of
humans and this goal has further 6 targets. As mentioned above, all these
targets must be met by 2030 so that the portion of people deprived of the
availability of clean water and sanitation can be minimized.
·
Target 6.1 states that all the people must have an
access to clean and safe drinking water by 2030.
·
Target 6.2 states that by 2030 availability of
sanitation and hygiene must be ensured in a way that open defecation ends. This
target specifically highlights the needs of women and girls who are at the
sensitive edge of sanitation.
·
Target 6.3 proposes that water pollution must be reduced
in a way that hazardous chemicals and materials should not be released into the
water bodies so that the fraction of untreated wastewater gets halved by 2030.
Thus, it will help in improving the water quality and in the end safe recycling
and reuse can be practiced globally.
·
Target 6.4 addresses the issue of water scarcity and
projected that by 2030 fresh water supply must be provided to the people
suffering from water scarcity. This can be achieved when water is used
efficiently by all sectors to ensure long-term freshwater availability to those
people.
·
Target 6.5 addresses that by 2030 Integrated Water
Resource Management must be implemented with rigid actions and it can be done
through mutual cooperation among countries.
·
Target 6.6 highlights about the protection and
restoration of the ecosystem that includes the involvement of water, i.e.
rivers, mountains, lakes, wetlands, forests and aquifers.
·
6.A: Developing countries must be supported in
the concern of clean water and sanitation by international cooperation till
2030. These countries should be encouraged about the activities and plans
related to SGD 6. For Example: Programmes of wastewater treatment, water- use efficiency,
recycling and reuse.
·
6.B: Local communities must be encouraged to
participate in the improvement water and sanitation concerns.
According
to WHO, 663 million individuals around the world are still deprived of clean
drinking water which is the basic need for survival.
673 million people in the world still
use open defecation which leads to poor sanitation.
Globally 2 billion people still
consume drinking water from the sources polluted with faeces. Globally
each two persons out of five still lack the facility of hand-washing. On
the whole 71% of the world’s population has access to safe drinking water
sources. Globally one thousand children die each day
due to poor sanitation and diarrhea.
Globally 40% of the world’s population
is facing water scarcity and this threat tends to rise due to increasing
population.
No doubt Pakistan has improved its sanitation
services as compared to previous years, still 25 million people in Pakistan use
open defecation. According to UNICEF, in Pakistan 53,000 children die each year
of diarrheal diseases due to poor water quality and sanitary conditions. Pakistan
has been ranked as 23rd water stress country out of 33 counties. In
Pakistan 70% of the families consume drinking water contaminated with bacteria.
Globally 80% of wastewater due to industrial activities is released into the
water bodies without any wastewater treatment.
There
are several ways for improvement in regard to SDG 6:
Ø Community Education: Community plays an important role when whole
mass of people is determined to attain a certain goal. Society should be guided
about general hygiene and sanitation so that proper hand-washing can be
ensured. If this goal is achieved, 35% of the global diarrheal cases can be
minimized.
Ø Water Treatment in Homes: People should be guided that how they can
ensure the safe usage of drinking water at home. Different kind of filtration
and disinfection techniques can be adopted by people.
Ø Water Quality Solutions: Many cheaper solutions can be used which can
improve the water quality with low expenses. For Example: the usage of chlorine
tablets as disinfection technique.
Ø Eliminating Open Defecation: In many rural areas people are still unware
of good sanitation and they use open defecation. Definitely, in such practice there
will be no surety of proper handwashing. This practice should be ended as this
is the main cause of various water related diseases and toilets must be
used.
Ø Hygiene in Schools: Students at schools must be provided with the
basic knowledge of health and clean environment. At schools, children should be
encouraged to practice appropriate handwashing so that their own hygiene can be
ensured. This will result in the decrease of diarrheal diseases among children.
Ø WASH in Hospitals: In hospitals, the principle of WASH Strategy
should be applied. There are various patients in the hospitals who carry
different diseases. Complete sanitation should be ensured at hospitals so that
there are no further chances of diseases spread.
Ø WASH in Natural Disasters: Many emergency situations (floods,
earthquakes) can occur suddenly. Sanitation and hygiene should be assured in
such crisis to avoid disease spread.
Government can take following actions for
betterment of SDG 6 at country level:
Ø Budget for Health: Education and Health are considered as the
main priorities in developed counties who invest a lot for the betterment of
these two. A suitable proportion of the economy must be invested for the
improvement of these services with the help of technical advisors. In developing
countries, the budget of a country is often imbalanced. There is need to
improve the socio-economic conditions of a country in terms of good sanitation
facilities.
Ø NGO’s Involvement: Government can involve Non-Governmental
Organizations for the betterment of sanitary services in local communities. In
this way, focused strategies can be made for the people living in backward
areas who are even deprived of clean drinking water.
Ø Good Governance: At country level, rigid policies must be
made by the government and proper implementation of the Clean Water Laws must
be assured. If a government has good will, there will be a visible change in
country’s sanitary facilities.
Ø Public Awareness via Media: Government can take step to create basic
awareness among people about cleanliness and environment. Media can be
encouraged to play its positive role when provided incentives by the
government.
Ø Usage of Modern Technologies: In general, water supply is provided by the
government to the public. This water runs through underground pipelines.
Government can improve the existing water systems with modern technologies.
Various modern technologies of filtration and disinfection must be used by the
government so that public can have availability of clean drinking.
Currently,
the world is suffering from the pandemic of Corona Virus whose preventive
measures are directly related to sanitation. In COVID-19, not only person’s
hygiene is important but also the household has to be cleaned. To avoid the
spread of COVID-19, water is the basic requirement for frequent hand-washing.
In this crisis, water demand is rising globally. According to World Economic
Forum, 47% of the global population will face water scarcity in 2030 and now
the outbreak of COVID-19 is developing the sense in people to avoid
environmental degradation. According to a research, it is studied that in
Lahore City, water usage has increased 10% due to Corona Virus. Lahore is the
second most populous city of Pakistan with 11 million inhabitants. So, the
water demand will rise accordingly. Before COVID-19, water usage of Lahore was
640 million gallons per month and now it has increased up to 700 million
gallons.
About the Author: Rubab Nazar, a student of B.S (Hons)
Environmental Science at GC University, Lahore. She is keen about writing for
environment and climate change.
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