http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=243498
Award for Aga Khan programme
Monday, June 07, 2010
Our correspondent
Islamabad: Due to its sustainable initiatives to improve living conditions of more than 200 villages in Pakistan, the Aga Khan Planning and Building Service Pakistan’s (AKPBS-P) Water and Sanitation Extension Programme (WASEP) was recently awarded with the National Energy Globe Award.
The award is conferred in a grand ceremony organised on the United Nation UN World Environment Day in Kigali, Rwanda, as WASEP was able to outshine more than 800 entries from 111 countries. WASEP was also short-listed as one of the top three projects in the prestigious Water Category Award.
WASEP is a rural-based initiative that integrates supply of safe water, construction of low-cost sanitation facilities and health and hygiene education in many marginalised parts of Gilgit-Baltistan.
The integration of these components has been able to significantly improve health indicators of the beneficiary villages. In regions where more than half of all deaths are caused by waterborne diseases, WASEP has been able to reduce by more than 60% the incidence of diarrhoea, which is the number one killer of children in the developing world.
WASEP schemes, running since 1997, are all managed by the communities that benefit from them. Moreover, almost all of WASEP’s water supply facilities are gravity-fed, requiring no electrical energy. The National Energy Globe Award for Pakistan, which is reputed to be a very important environmental award in the world, was received by AKPBS,P’s Chairman, Hafiz Sherali at a ceremony held in Rwanda this week.
On receiving the award, Chairman Aga Khan Planning and Building Service Sher Ali, said “the contribution of WASEP in uplifting the living conditions of the people in Pakistan has been a source of great satisfaction for AKPBS,P but a lot more effort in this area is required. The Energy Globe Award has brought immense honour and prestige for all Pakistanis across the globe as WASEP is one of the few national Programmes that have been so well-recognised throughout the world”.