ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: It would be more like a joke to most urban dwellers that there is a specific day marked to highlight the importance of ‘toilets’ but it is a serious issue for people living in rural areas.

According to a rough estimate released by NGOs working in the social sector, around 52 per cent of women in Pakistan lack safe toilet facilities, increasing their risk of illness and shame.

To highlight the plight faced by the citizens, a young girl, Anam Nawaz spoke about changes in her life, soon after the elders of her family decided to establish a toilet in the house.

“Life became stress-free,” Anam said but added, “It may seem like nonsense to most of you people living in the cities but imagine the daily tension of life, where there is no walled place for the purpose, at home or in the school.”

She was speaking at a function held to observe ‘World Toilet Day,’ organised by  PIEDAR, WaterAid, UNICEF and Ministry of Climate Change. Anam is a resident of a remote area in Muzaffargarh district.

With the help of civil society and NGOs like WaterAid, an awareness campaign was launched in her area, after the 2010 floods, highlighting the importance of safe disposal of human waste, in pits filled with ordinary chemicals like calcium carbonate.

Though the situation may be changing in the village where Anam lives, but for the rest of the country, the conditions are still severe as around 40 million Pakistanis defecate in the fields.

While around 45 million Pakistani women lack safe and adequate sanitation, 20 million of them do not have toilets at all.

The situation in this regard is a global issue and is a world wide problem as around 2.5 billion people have no clean toilets and 1.1 billion people around the world defecate in open areas.

Siddiq Khan, Country Representative of WaterAid Pakistan, called upon the authorities and the civil society for joint efforts to develop awareness in this regard.

“In Pakistan a large population defecates in the open, and it has social implications too, specially when women do not have a safe, secure and private place to go to, which puts them in a vulnerable position.”

The speakers said that World Toilet Day is being observed since 2001 with the aim to pressurise governments to keep the promises they have made to provide adequate sanitation and safe water to their people.

However, the officials acknowledged the gravity of the situation and Jawed Ali Khan, Director-General Ministry of Climate Change said that more than 40,000 mothers in Pakistan lose a child every year to diarrhea, caused by a lack of adequate sanitation and clean water.

He also spoke about the financial loss faced by individuals and the state due to health complications, arising out of poor hygiene caused by lack of adequate toilet facilities.