91m Pakistanis lack access to sanitation

Around 91 million people are without proper sanitation conditions in the country inviting various viral diseases including diarrhoea, says a report. The Pakistan Council for Research of Water Resources (PCRWR) in its report said that 74 million people in rural areas and 17 million in urban areas were deprived of proper sanitation. Around 48 percent schools do not have toilets. In Punjab around 36 million people are without proper sanitation and 33.6 million belong to rural areas while 2.4 million are from urban Punjab, the report says.Around 22 districts of the province are also below than provincial average for access to sanitation facilities. Pakistan is the third largest country in the world in terms of deaths due to diarrhoea. Poor hygiene and lack of access to sanitation contribute to about 88 percent of deaths from diarrhoeal diseases.Pach year more than 200 million ton of human waste and vast quantities of waste water and solid waste go uncollected and untreated around the world, polluting the environment and exposing millions of children to disease.Around 2.6 billion people worldwide lack access to proper sanitation and two billion live in rural areas, 980 million are under 18 years, 280 million children under 5 years, the report added.One in two people in the developing world lacks access to sanitation, the PCRWR report added