‘Saaf Suthro Sindh’ no more

Project shut down as DFID abruptly withdraws funding in the wake of UK’s Covid-19 crunch

Owing to the suspension of funds from donors, the provincial government has finally called off its Saaf Suthro Sindh programme.

Under the now nixed programme, the Sindh government, in association with World Bank and various NGOs, had planned to make the province free of open defecation by 2025.

Launched in 2018, the campaign targeted 13 districts of Sindh. It was touted to be an integral part of the provincial government’s sanitation policy, drafted in 2017 in pursuit of achieving the United Nation’s sixth Social Development Goal.

“The government had initially identified over 5,200 villages across 13 districts to equip with proper toilet access and sanitation systems. Upon completion, the same project was to be replicated in the remaining 16 districts too. However, the sudden suspension of funding from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, citing Covid-19’s impact on the country, has left us with no option but to shut down the initiative,” said Saaf Suthro Sindh project director Farooq Ahmed Siddiqui.

According to the project director, the initiative had been live for over eight months and had yielded promising results during this time.

Started with the help of local NGOs under World Bank Guidelines, Saaf Suthro Sindh had been mobilising community members to build their own toilets and adopt sanitation practices.

“As part of the process, local NGOs would form village committees and educate people about the impact of open defecation on health and the environment. Through this practice, we had so far declared 2,400 out of 5,200 villages free of open defecation,” claimed Siddiqui, adding that relevant district government administrations had verified this feat and issued certifications to villages upon their achievement of the required sanitation targets.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Siddiqui also said that in the absence of donors, he wanted to request the provincial government to allocate funding for Saaf Suthro Sindh, so the project could once again be resumed.

On the other hand, as per officials privy to the provincial government working in this regard, the sanitation policy was launched by the Public Health Engineering Department in May 2017. However, all work related to the building of latrines and equipping villages with sanitation systems was handed over to the local government, which kept delaying the project.

“Where they claim to have built over 2,400 latrines, in actuality the number is less than 1,000. Even so, building sanitation systems is the easiest part. The real task is to maintain them,” maintained a senior official.

Siddiqui, though, expressed the belief that all village committees had been empowered and mobilised enough to be able to sustain the systems on their own.

According to water and sanitation expert Niaz Nadeem, approximately 53,000 Pakistani children under the age of five die from diarrhoea each year, stemming from poor water and sanitation facilities. Excessive diarrhoea is also a leading cause of stunting, which currently affects 44 per cent of the country’s children. “This hinders child growth and leaves them lagging in school, and other vital spheres of life,” elaborated Nadeem.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and WaterAid Pakistan are among some organisations that assist the federal government and provinces in terms of frameworks to plan, prioritise and allocate funds for safe water services in the country. In addition, they aid in the implementation of Pakistan Approach for Total Sanitation (PATS), to sustain an open defecation-free environment both in rural and urban contexts.

“We are already working in various districts and supporting local communities in building toilets and increasing access to sanitation. We have so far declared one union council in Badin to be free of open defecation and are currently working in Tharparkar, Thatta, Khairpur Mirs and Dadu districts for the same cause. That being said, we are ready to extend our aid to the Sindh government in doing so as well,” WaterAid communications officer Sara Akmal told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2020.