ISLAMABAD, Sept 21: Eleven Asian countries signed here on Thursday the Islamabad Declaration pledging to take concrete steps to provide safe drinking water and improved sanitation facilities to their citizens as mentioned in the Millennium Development Goals.

The signatories to the declaration are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Speaking at the concluding ceremony of the second South Asian Conference on Sanitation (Sacosan), Federal Environment Minister Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat said that access to waste disposal and clean drinking water, something majority of the people in developed countries took for granted, still remained a luxury for a substantial number of people in developing countries, which was not acceptable and needed to be changed.

He said that the Islamabad Declaration presented in ‘most cost-effective ways’ to empower communities for gaining access to safe water and sanitation.

Indian Minister of State for Rural Development Surykanta Patil announced that next conference would be held in India in 2008. Makhdoom Hayat said it was encouraging to note that China and Cambodia, recognising the importance of the issue and had participated in the conference as observers.

He said that the declaration provided guidelines for a generic framework for adaptation and use for developing regional and country-specific actions.

The declaration says that the signatories have agreed to accord high priority to sanitation by strengthening inter- governmental cooperation in the region by activating annually the Sacosan Inter-country Working Group comprising their senior representatives.