Pakistan Earthquake 2005

Covering the earthquake, the damage and the relief work in Pakistan.

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Huge number of toilets urgently needed in quake-hit north

An acute lack of latrines in quake-affected areas of northern Pakistan, where millions of survivors live under dire sanitary conditions, will undermine health and could lead to serious disease outbreaks unless immediate action is taken, aid workers warn.

“We need to build about 200,000 toilets,” Andrew MacLeod, head of the UN Emergency Coordination Centre, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Although to date UNICEF, its partners and other organisations have installed over 600 toilets in the Muzaffarabad area at various camps and health centres, that number remains a small fraction of what actually is needed. Time, however, is quickly running out, with reports of acute diarrhoea cases already appearing. On Wednesday, the United Nations reported serious outbreaks of acute watery diarrhoea in Muzaffarabad and other devastated areas, underscoring the need to scale up efforts to provide safe water and sanitation in the self-settled camps.

Source: South Asia Quake Help through Alertnet

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