Pakistan: WaterAid's newest country programme

WaterAid's long-awaited Pakistan office opened in March of this year - expanding our vital work into one of the most water-stressed countries in the world.

Diseases thrive in streets where there is no decent sewerage or rubbish disposal.

Credit: WaterAid / Caroline Penn

While our office is new we have been supporting local partners since 1993 and for the past ten years WaterAid's work has focused on the major urban centres of Pakistan. Here, the lives of people in the sprawling, unplanned slum areas are blighted by open sewers filled with rubbish that wind their way through narrow lanes and passageways where people live and children play.

WaterAid's partners have empowered communities at street level to finance, construct and manage their own underground sewerage systems which feed into mains sewers provided by the municipal authorities.

Building on these successes, WaterAid is preparing for the challenges ahead: the decreasing availability of water and its deteriorating quality, over-extraction and pollution, and the lack of sanitation facilities and solid waste disposal.

While official statistics claim that clean water is available to 90% of Pakistan's population, these figures are widely believed to be overstated and it is estimated that in reality only half of the population has adequate access to drinking water and a mere 15% to sanitation.

WaterAid's partners are already helping communities to build their own sewerage systems and piped water supplies like this one in Faisalabad.

Credit: WaterAid / Caroline Penn

There is much work to do. Establishing a country programme will enable WaterAid to have a greater impact and help more poor communities, in both rural and urban areas, gain access to safe water and hygienic toilets.

In order to achieve this, developing a country strategy is one of the primary tasks of the new WaterAid team. Over the coming year there will be an intensive process of reflection, consultation and joint planning between WaterAid staff and partners and other key actors in the water and sanitation sector of Pakistan.

Other key priorities for Country Manager, Arif Pervaiz, in establishing the programme are recruiting a team, visiting WaterAid's partners and their projects, meeting with potential new partners and planning the areas of work where we can have the most impact reaching disadvantaged communities.

Looking back on his first four months, Arif reflects: "I feel sobered by the responsibility of the position, and excited about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead."

We wish Arif and his team all the best.

By Thérèse Mahon, WaterAid's Regional Programme Officer for Asia.