Qatar Charity, UNICEF implement WASH project in Pakistan

The project is under the implementation in 98 villages and 350 schools of Punjab in coordination with the Pakistani Ministries of Education and Health.

Qatar Charity (QC) continues to implement a project to provide water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The project is expected to benefit some 270,000 people in 19 areas of Shorkot located in the province.

The project, which will continue until 2020, aims, in general, to contribute to improving the health and well-being of the rural population by changing their culture of sanitation, hygiene and safe drinking water.

Places of Implementation

The project is being implemented in 98 villages and 350 schools in coordination with the Ministries of Education and Health of Pakistan. It will ultimately be a support to the Pakistan Approach for Total Sanitation (PATS).

The emphasis will be placed on students through water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) approaches in school in line with Punjab’s schools strategy on WASH.

It is worth mentioning that the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has implemented four separate projects in the Punjab Province in the same field. Qatar Charity contributed to one of such projects with 35% of the total value of the project, as it overall cost amounted to $1.5mn.

Awareness Activities

Under the project, Qatar Charity carries out a range of educational and awareness activities to provide beneficiaries with hygiene skills and knowledge. It will train 1,050 teachers in Shorkot and form 350 water, sanitation and hygiene clubs comprising 193 government schools to improve school health and hygiene condition.

Qatar Charity has organized an interactive theater on hygiene to raise people's awareness about poor sanitation situation through dramatic theater scenes, in order to change people's behavior for the better.

Also, Qatar Charity will organize 98 marches for sanitation weekly in villages with the help of a group of youth and the WASH committee of villages and the local community to change the people’s behavior regarding the disposal of solid waste in designated places.

Such marches will help educate the local community about the importance of the cleanness of the sanitation places and solid waste management. Qatar Charity also planned to provide 6,000 toilets in Shorkot by March 2019.

In order to improve community health and hygiene practices, Qatar Charity’s team implements communication campaigns to change behavior at different levels, such as home, school and community. More than 150,000 people have so far been reached in the same area.

Moreover, some 50 support group of women have been set up in the targeted villages and 40 groups of youth to highlight their role in society.