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maintain with limited but feasible technical assistance and training.• Human resources are developed by employing local manpower in program activities andproviding training opportunities.• The project installs infrastructure that does not require electricity, making it easy to operate andmaintain with limited external support.Lessons Learned:• An integrated water supply, sanitation and hygiene awareness programme that investsin community involvement and participation alongside sustainable technologies can havetremendous socio-economic impacts, especially in villages that have inadequate water collectionand supply, unsafe hygiene practices and associated health risks.• The program’s integrated community-oriented approach has the potential to be replicated in anysituation.• Communities are motivated to maintain their systems when they witness comprehensivebenefits. The reduction in healthcare expenditures also increases villagers’ willingness andability to pay for maintenance of the infrastructure.Background Information:The regions of Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral (GBC) are among the most remote and poorest areas of thehigh mountain regions of northern Pakistan, with an average household income of $0.50 per capitalper day and an unemployment/under-employment rate of about 70 percent. Poor living conditions inthe region are compounded by the harsh reality that approximately 85 percent of the population doesnot have access to safe drinking water. 60 percent of inhabitants collect water daily from open channelsusually contaminated with human and animal waste and chemical pollutants. Women and children,traditionally the “water haulers” of the household, must walk moderate distances, negotiating rockyslopes and snow-laden fields to collect water from glacial melt streams and lakes.Polluted living conditions resulting from unsafe water and almost no sanitation or hygiene awarenessdirectly lead to ill health, disease and death. In many areas of the GBC region, water contaminationis 500 times higher than WHO standards, resulting in a frequent illness, including acute respiratoryinfections, eye infections and dysentery. A local study revealed that 50 percent of all deaths of childrenbetween 1 and 5 years of age is attributable to poor water and sanitation. Implications of poorsanitation are not fully understood by many communities, and houses, schools and public buildings areoften constructed without latrines. Women in this religiously conservative region often suffer the mostfrom a lack of private and sanitary toilet facilities.While employing a financially sustainable, environmentally-friendly and participatory approach,WASEP’s integrated strategy combats this by applying research related to safe water supply, thedevelopment and demonstration of energy-free infrastructure, the integration of sanitation facilities,the establishment of decentralized and community-based water and sanitation committees, and thepromotion of intergenerational, village-wide knowledge of hygiene and healthcare.Implementation Partners:Aga-Khan Planning and Building Service, PakistanGovernment of PakistanGerman Government (KfW), UNDP, World Bank, Flora Family Foundation, Partner Aid International,Australian GovernmentContacts:Khizer F. OmerAga Khan Planning and Building Service, PakistanTel: +92-21-3536-1802E-mail: khizer.omer@akpbsp.org76 MDG Good Practices