ISLAMABAd: Adviser to PM on climate change Malik Amin Aslam Khan on Friday said that the federal government is devising a comprehensive ‘National Sanitation Policy’ to materialize PM Imran’s vision of Clean Pakistan, ARY News reported.

Chairing a meeting on the sanitation at ministry of climate change, the PM’s adviser said that the national sanitation policy will entail creation of open defecation free environment, building of toilets on community help basis, provision of appropriate drainage and sewerage system especially to the villages through local governments in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals commitment.

Federal secretary MOCC Mr. Khizar Hayat Khan, Addl Secretary Khurram Ali Agha, Dr Saima (UNECEF), Ms Tanya Khan Country Coordinator (WSSCC) and other senior officials from the Ministry were also present in the meeting.

Capt(R) Khurram Ali Agha appraised the chair regarding salient features of the proposed sanitation policy through a detailed presentation and briefed about up scalling of “Pakistan Approached to Total Sanitation” (PATS).

The PM’s adviser stressed that aquifer gets contaminated when we don’t have proper sewerage and drainage system installed, creating severe sanitation and health issues for the people.

“We have to discourage open defecation which leads to diarrhea and stunting and recent studies shown alarming figures in this regard. About 8% of the world’s 165 million stunted children live in just 14 countries including Pakistan,” said the PM’s adviser.

Amin Aslam Khan said that provision of clean environment will be only possible, when we will have a strong legislation, system of “rewards and punishments” in place and we will also include this aspect in our policy recommendations.

“Community based collective behavior change will be our preferred approach. Our focus would be on creation of complete open defecation free villages, rather than construction of individual toilets. This entails triggering the entire village in to changing their behavior”, he concluded.

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