South Asian Regional Wash Forum - A Call of Time

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South Asian Regional Wash Forum - A Call of Time

South Asian Regional Wash Forum. A Call of Time.

South Asian Water Crisis. A problem needs regional and global Attention .

2014-07-20_sector_40150.pngSouth Asia a densely populated region with a population of over 1.6 billion people. The increase urbanization has developed a trend of leaving traditional practices that helped to solve basic human needs. Today one of the biggest problem people of the region facing is water shortage which is increasing day by day.

The latest report of United Nations released on world water day on 22nd March warns that by 2030.only 60 percent of world water demanded can be filled by existing water resources and the current rate of use which means 40% of the world population will face water scarcity which is an alarming feature especially for developing countries.

As South Asian countries  lies in row of developing countries and it supports more than 21 percent of the world’s population, it has access to only 8 eight percent of global water resources, with per capita water availability decreasing by nearly 80 percent since the 1950s.

Now If we talk about the geographic situation of the region. The water conditions are almost similar and most of the countries facing similar situation. It is estimated that 22 of 32 Indian cities face daily water shortages. In Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, many local residents have grown accustomed to waiting in queues for hours to obtain drinking water from the city’s ancient, stone waterspouts. In Karachi, a densely populated city of Pakistan, electricity and water shortages have led to protests against their governments.

Need of South Asian Wash Forum.

South Asian countries have established an regional cooperation association which is named as SAARC(South Asian Association of regional Cooperation.) SAARC was founded in Dhaka in 1985.[4] Its secretariat is based in Kathmandu. The organization promotes development of economic and regional integration. Its member states include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and SriLanka.Its basic purpose is to enhance bilateral talks between the countries which leds to economic growth of the region.SAARC members have kept water situation under consideration they have given their recommendations for improvement but due to current wash situation there is need to establish a separate Wash Forum to cope with future wash crisis.

South Asian Collaborative Wash Forum .

Proposed Agenda:

a)Understanding and promoting adoption of rural water conservation practices.
 
b)Gendered participation in water management. Both male and female should be educated about effective use of water resources.
c)Grants and cooperative agreements between countries according to their economic conditions.
d)Encourage public private participation in research and development in agriculture sector and adaptation of participatory approach towards Climate Change impact on water resources.
e)Comparative analysis of cross water reservoirs how to improve their conditions according to international standards.
  1. Create a regional knowledge exchange program. Promoting the concept of WASH (water Sanitation and Hygiene) by Creating a regional knowledge exchange wash program.Highlighting necessary steps towards improvement of existing Sanitation and Hygiene Conditions in the whole region.
  2. Encouraging the installation of “water Filtration plants” in urban areas especially those cities which are densely populated.
  3. Annual meeting of Wash Forum to analyze frequency of targets achievement and how it improves it further.

Major constraints & hurdle towards establishment of Regional Wash forum.

One major hurdle towards establishment of wash forum is current security situation and cross border conflicts between India and Pakistan but we are not hopeless people are “Agent of change” if they join hands and and forces their Govts to resolve these issues through peaceful talks and focus on their basic needs.

This is my message to every citizen of the region to step forward forget regional conflicts towrds craetion of health environment without water crisis situation.

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