Global handwashing day may go unnoticed

Official seminars, walks put off due to flood relief efforts

KARACHI:

While the world is observing Global Handwashing Day on Saturday, no awareness campaign has been planned to motivate and mobilize communities in Sindh, where basic hygiene has assumed more importance following the devastating floods.

Millions of people, especially children, gather every year on this day in different countries of the world to mark the Day highlighting the significance of handwashing with soap.

Conversely, the situation in Pakistan is deplorable amid a lack of awareness on how handwashing could stop the spread of diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid, cholera and respiratory infections including flu.

"Over 40 million people in Pakistan lack access to handwashing facilities with water and soap, and disparities exist between the poor and the rich. At least 90% of those in urban areas have access to basic handwashing stations, while 74% have in rural areas," a Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) of WHO and UNICEF said, adding that handwashing at key moments such as using the toilet or before eating can dramatically prevent such diseases.

According to water and sanitation experts, the recent floods that ravaged most parts of Sindh have washed away toilet facilities due to which diarrhea, especially among the children living in relief camps, has been on the rise.

"During the flood, we lost everything. Our areas are still under knee-deep water. We are hardly filling the empty stomachs of our children and you are talking about soaps," said Rahimdad Khoso, who lives with his family in a shanty on the bank of a canal in Mehar Tehsil of Dadu district. "It has been two months, no government official has come to visit us. Some philanthropists provided us a three-week food ration comprising mainly rice, flour, pluses and ghee," he said.

Speaking on the issue, water expert Sara Akmal said that sanitation and hygiene stand at number six on the list of Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations General Assembly and the targets are intended to be achieved by 2030. "It means till 2030, every household must have access to water and sanitation with proper awareness among the masses about hygiene," she said, adding that the provincial government must devise and implement their plan to meet the targets.

She said that there must be a proper campaign not only on a particular day, but the government with the help of NGOs should involve schoolgoing children and communities by organising walks, seminars and developing the handwashing curriculum at the school level. "Students are agents of change, they must be mobilised about the importance of handwashing with soaps," she said, adding that it has been a great challenge being faced by the world.

According to the JMP progress report on water, sanitation and hygiene (conducted by World Bank and UNICEF) that covered the tenure from 2000 to 2020, three in ten people worldwide could not wash their hands with soap and water at their homes.

The report further said, "If the current trends persist, then billions of children and families will be left without critical, life-saving services by 2030. Only 67 per cent will have safe sanitation services in the world leaving 2.8 billion without it and and only 78 per cent will have basic handwashing facilities, leaving 1.9 billion without the facility."

When contacted, the spokesperson for Sindh Education Department said that they organize events on Global Handwashing Day in some schools every year, but since most of the schools have been inundated by floods, this year they missed the opportunity. "Handwashing before having food is a sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) too. We already have a plan to include water, sanitation and hygiene in school curriculum. It will be doon soon as soon as possible," he remarked.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2022.