Pakistan: Tanks, tubes and taps

Safeena won the hygiene education prize in Pakistan after hygiene education from CAFOD's partner [Catholic Relief Services]

We have been working with communities affected by the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, providing clean drinking water and sanitation facilities

Prize giving is a proud occasion for any parent. Never more so than for Alf Jan, mother of eight-year-old Safeena, who was named Grade 5 winner of the Basala Primary School hygiene education prize.

Donate to our Pakistan appeal >>

Girls and boys at Basala school now have their own school bathrooms with clean water taps and can wash their hands and brush their teeth regularly, thanks to help from CAFOD.

Our parter, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has connected nineteen community schools to new village water tanks. But clean water is only part of the problem. Lack of education means people have limited knowledge about hygiene.

Mothers’ groups

To solve this problem, CRS is providing hygiene training to mothers’ groups using demonstrations, pictures, poems, drama and jokes to explain personal hygiene.

Thirty-five-year-old Hussan Jan, a mother from the first group says:

“I promote school attendance among the children and help their mothers to take care of them so they can go to school neat and clean.”

And now, thanks to the water supply that’s been installed, mothers like Alf Jan spend less time collecting water and have time to attend these sessions.

Carolyn Fanelli, who works on the CRS programme says, "Before the tanks, women had to walk for five hours over mountainous terrain to collect water. The heat is unbearable in summer, and temperatures can drop as low as zero in winter.

“Most women collected water from streams and ditches, which were also used by sheep and goats, so the risk of water borne diseases and diarrhea was high.”

In contrast she adds, "The new gravity-fed water that we’ve provided is quality tested and protected from contamination by a source tank, from which tubes distribute water to people’s homes and school taps. As well as having clean water to drink, women can now irrigate and tend kitchen gardens.”

We have helped improve life for hundreds in the Siran Valley. In the wake of the 2010 floods in Pakistan, millions of people desperately need our help. As they start to rebuild lives, a safe drinking water supply system is a vital head start.

take action

Give For every £1 given to our Give it up! Lent Appeal today, the Government will donate another £1 – doubling your gift and changing even more lives.

Pray 884 million people do not have access to clean, safe water. Pray with us this Lent that waters may flow and injustice may be washed away.

Act Help us turn the tide on water poverty. Join our Thirst for change campaign and ensure world leaders hear our call: taps and toilets for all.

join our networks