Equal to the task: financing water supply, sanitation and hygiene for a clean, green and healthy Pakistan

Radha, 18, carrying water in the village of Yaarli, District Tharparkar, Province Sindh, Pakistan, August 2016
Image: WaterAid/ Sibtain Haider

Produced with Development Initiatives, this report focuses on the state of financing of the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector in Pakistan. In it we highlight the need for renewed effort and purpose from the Government of Pakistan and the  international community to mobilise the resources necessary to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and deliver universal access to safe WASH within a clean and green Pakistan.

Our analysis emphasises the need to mobilise substantial increases in funds for WASH in support of the Government’s COVID-19 response and as part of accelerated action to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6. This step change in approach is necessary not just as a response to the pandemic, which requires rigorous and regular handwashing as a key preventative measure, but also to address the steep challenges facing the water sector more broadly, including climate change.

In the report we estimate the scale of the national financing gap, and recommend, among other key actions, a five-fold increase in Government funding to the WASH sector from federal and provincial governments, with a strong focus on equity and sustainability.