London: UK-based charity Human Appeal has won a bid with UNICEF to launch a wide-ranging water and sanitation project in Pakistan’s Sindh province.
The 18-month program, which will target the Khairpur district, will build safe water and sewage facilities in more than 1,300 villages, and will benefit 590,000 people.
It aims to achieve the sixth target of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: “Ensure availability, sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.”
In Sindh, about one-third of residents drink water contaminated with E. coli, while two-thirds drink water contaminated with coliforms.
More than half the population of the province are forced to drink water that falls below World Health Organization standards for dangerous trace chemicals.
Human Appeal will achieve its stated goal through the “provision of equitable access to safe drinking water, access to adequate and equitable sanitation, and hygiene for all,” said its CEO Dr. Mohamed Ashmawey.
“Working with UNICEF to see this project through to completion next year will mean that Human Appeal has the opportunity to transform hundreds of thousands more lives,” he added.
“This project to tackle water and sanitation issues will give vulnerable people in one of the poorest parts of the world a new start.”
The charity, based in Manchester, has operated in Pakistan for more than a decade, benefiting 8.5 million of the most impoverished people in the country through programs that cover issues such as orphan and child welfare, water, sanitation, hygiene, food security, emergency response capabilities and education.
Human Appeal has also constructed key infrastructure across the country, including environmentally sustainable water wells and solar power generators in desert areas.
It has launched schemes in the provinces of Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
As part of the new water and sanitation initiative, Human Appeal will use $1 million in extra funding from UNICEF. AFP
