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| March, 24 2005 | Thursday | 13 Safar 1426 |
‘Water provision low priority in country’
ISLAMABAD, March 23: Independent water experts and civil society representatives on Tuesday threatened to launch a civil disobedience movement if the state continuously failed to provide clean drinking water to the people. The announcement was made at a seminar jointly organized by Action Aid, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), The Network and Sungi at a local hotel in connection with the World Water Day.
The speakers demanded that water must be considered a basic human right rather than a luxury and the government must be bound to provide potable water to every citizen. They criticized the government for not giving top priority to the provision of drinking water to the citizens and said water should be managed as a public good under public domain. They termed the government claim of achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) a political slogan.
Opening the seminar, Ali Qadir, The Network chief executive, said water related problems were often linked with management problems. The local government departments, he said, were responsible for distribution of drinking water but there was no proper system available to monitor water quality resulting in hundreds of deaths everyday due to water-borne diseases. He also discussed some financial problems in this regard.
“The UN has declared the ongoing decade as a decade of action. One of the actions needed is policy action, even if it involves all the stakeholders. However, it does not absolve the state from its fundamental duty to protect and ensure the right of citizens which can be ensured only with a comprehensive policy action,” he said.
Mustafa Talpur from Action Aid said water was a fundamental human right and it was the responsibility of the state to respect, protect and fulfil this right. Water was a low and underfinanced priority in Pakistan and the government had failed to protect this right, he said.
Fayaz Baqar from UNDP demanded there should be public hearings of development schemes at all levels and there should be public participation in the process.
He said there was need to mobilise people to raise voice against policy failures regarding development projects while holding the decision-makers responsible.— Jamal Shahid
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