Unacceptable conditions

While the attention of the world through 2020 has been on the Covid-19 pandemic which has swept across countries and continents, according to a study by Pakistan Medical Association, one of the major causes of death in Pakistan is unsafe water. Two-thirds of the population does not receive water which is safe to drink, and instead must consume water that has been contaminated by effluents from factories, by industrial waste, by by-products from growing crops and vegetables and by sewage from domestic use as well as other materials. There is increasingly less safe water in the country. And the fact that we are unable to provide it to people means that we have a higher rate of death due to XDR typhoid as well as other waterborne diseases. According to the PMA, more people die on a yearly basis due to diseases such as Hepatitis B and C, which claim 300 to 325 lives each day, compared to Covid-19.

The fact is that we have been unable to provide even the most basic amenities to our people. Instead, they live in the most squalid conditions with unsafe food, unsafe water and unsafe housing. More people die due to polluted water than in natural calamities or other mishaps of this nature. We need to look at health as a far wider issue. The focus needs to be far broader and must go beyond the health cards issued by the government. Yes, the health cards are a very good idea, but they cannot stop people from being deprived of their most essential needs. It is these basic amenities that need to be provided to each and every citizen as quickly as possible through schemes which are feasible and realistic.

A strategy to deal with the issue needs to be found. The main needs of people including access to healthcare and to safe food and water must be found. And the people also need sufficient food. The rate of malnutrition has already resulted in the stunting of almost 50 percent of the country's children. This is an unacceptable figure. As a nation we should be ashamed of this and we should not accept this as something we have to live with. All the citizens of Pakistan need all that is necessary for them to survive and to live normal, healthy lives. Even today, there are many children in the country who do not receive the basic vaccines necessary to protect them from disease, and are deprived of other needs that could spare them misery, illness and death.