September 18, 2006	Monday	Sha'aban 24, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 17: The Second South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN-2) will open here on September 20 with the overall goal to accelerate the progress of sanitation and hygiene work in South Asia.

The two-day conference being organized by the Ministry of Environment with the support of international donor organizations is aimed at enhancing the quality of life in South Asia in fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the commitments made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, official sources told Dawn.

The objectives of the conference will be to review the progress made in the implementation of Dhaka Declaration of the First South Asian Conference on Sanitation; to reiterate political commitment in each country of the region for furthering the sanitation agenda; to facilitate development of country- specific as well as regional frameworks for sanitation, to share experiences and lessons learnt in sanitation and hygiene promotion and to increase outreach of sanitation agenda in the region.

The parties to the Dhaka Declaration, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will present and discuss “Country Situation Papers”.

Discussions will also take place on important topics like the role of women in sanitation; the changing world in the context of sanitation; sanitation related Millennium Development Goals: their potential and implications; technological options for sanitation; sanitation policy options; and best practices and scaling up experiences from the South Asian countries.

Country group meetings will discuss country-specific future course of action and meetings of secretaries and ministers on Islamabad Declaration.

An exhibition will be organized on the sidelines of the conference to afford an opportunity to the manufacturers, developers, research and other stakeholders’ organizations to showcase related products and services.

The federal government has drafted a national sanitation policy in order to guide and support the provincial and district governments of Punjab, Sindh, NWFP, Balochistan, Azad and Jammu Kashmir and Northern Areas in framing their own sanitation related strategies, plans and programmes.

The prime objective of the sanitation policy is to improve the quality of life of the people and the physical environment.

The government expects that implementation of the Medium-Term Development Framework would result in the extension of sanitation facilities from the present coverage of 42 per cent (64 per cent in urban and 30 per cent in rural) to serve an additional three million households, thus covering 50 per cent of the total population (75 per cent urban and 35 per cent rural) by the year 2020.