Addis Ababa - 22 March 2016: The Minister of Housing Urban Development and Public Health Engineering, in the Punjab Government, H.E. Tanveer Aslam Malik, presented Pakistan’s success in achieving the millennium development goal (MDG) for sanitation at a global ministerial meeting on sanitation and water.
The Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) meeting convenes ministers of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene from 50 countries around the globe, as well as senior government officials, UN agencies, civil society, academia, and private sector to discuss the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to sanitation, water and hygiene.
“Pakistan has reached a tipping point now and toilet use is fast becoming a social norm,” says Mr. Tanveer Aslam Malik. The government with support from UNICEF and other partners, has made significant strides in eliminating open defecation by mobilizing communities to take control of their own sanitation in order to improve their general health. Since massive floods hit the country in 2010, the government and its partners including UNICEF has ensured that more than 10 million people, are living in open defaecation free environments, 1.3 million of which were reached in 2015 alone.
Pakistan is one of 95 countries to have met the MDG target for sanitation through concerted efforts of both government and development partners,” added the minister. SWA Chair and former prime minister of Australia, H.E. Kevin Rudd lauded Pakistan’s efforts having witnessed the government-led response in the aftermath of the floods.
The SWA meeting offers an opportunity for countries and their partners to discuss national plans to meet the challenges of the water, sanitation and hygiene-related targets of the new SDGs. Pakistan has committed to ensuring universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation by 2025.
UNICEF’s Executive Director, Anthony Lake emphasised the importance of water and sanitation in relation to other global challenges, “when we provide a child with access to water and sanitation we prevent disease. We improve her nutrition and well-being. We reduce the chance she will be stunted. We increase the likelihood she will attend school and learn and earn more in the future and thus contribute to the well-being of her family and society as a whole.”
Read More:
- Sanitation and Water for All ministerial meeting.
- Infographic - Pakistan's Approach to Total Sanitation
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For further information please contact:
Daniel Timme, UNICEF Pakistan, +92 300 500 2595,dtimme@unicef.org
Abdul Sami Malik, UNICEF Pakistan, +92 300 8556654,asmalik@unicef.org