For many Afghan refugees in Pakistan, basic sanitation is a daily struggle. Makeshift toilets don't provide women and girls in refugee camps enough privacy, dignity, or safety.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00If we have a clean washroom, we don't have to worry about getting sick.
00:06The walls are clean, the floor is clean, the doors are clean, the windows are clean.
00:13We don't have to worry about anything.
00:16For Afghan women and girls living in refugee camps in Pakistan,
00:20the lack of proper toilets makes a tough life even harder.
00:25Men, women and children share camp toilet facilities
00:30The poor conditions increase the risk of sexual abuse and harassment.
00:35Women and girls are forced to take extreme measures
00:38to avoid using toilets alone at after dark.
00:43In the past, there was a woman in the bathroom.
00:47When she came out of the bathroom, all the women in the camp would cry.
00:51The women would cry and say,
00:53I don't want to go to the bathroom, I don't want to go to the bathroom.
00:56I don't want to go to the bathroom.
00:58I don't want to go to the bathroom.
01:00I don't want to go to the bathroom.
01:02I don't want to go to the bathroom.
01:05Elsewhere, the situation is even worse.
01:09In this refugee camp in Shadasa's Naguman area,
01:12over 30 families living here receive no support from authorities,
01:17neither local nor international.
01:20Refugees have created their own makeshift toilets for privacy.
01:25When we go to the toilet,
01:28we have to wear a mask,
01:31so that we can safely go to the toilet.
01:38We are afraid that if we go to the toilet,
01:41no one will see us,
01:43no one will see us,
01:45no one will see us,
01:47no one will see us.
01:51The lack of female-only toilets and unhygienic conditions
01:55also affect their health.
01:57Many Afghan refugee women
01:59frequently visit hospitals to seek treatment.
02:02Afghan refugee women come here
02:05with urinary tract infections.
02:09The reason for these urinary tract infections
02:13is that they hold their urine for a long time.
02:19The reason for this is that
02:21either they don't have toilet facilities,
02:23or even if they do have facilities,
02:25the toilets are very unhygienic and at a distance,
02:28which is why they hold their urine for a long time.
02:33Authorities told DW that the lack of funding is a major challenge.
02:39The challenges for the government are funding issues.
02:44The government is doing a lot with its own resources,
02:48but because it is a long period of time,
02:50and there are many refugees living in Pakistan and KPK,
02:54they come here from time to time.
03:00This is one of the difficulties.
03:02They need more funding from donors.
03:04The government welcomes them with its own resources.
03:09Pakistan has been hosting Afghan refugees for over four decades.
03:14As of October 2024,
03:16the UN Refugee Agency estimates
03:18there are some 1.5 million Afghan refugees
03:22and asylum seekers in the country.
03:25More than half live in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
03:30There are a lot of financial and funding constraints,
03:33but we are struggling on behalf of the Afghan Commissionerate
03:37to make women aware of different sessions,
03:41on cleanliness, hygiene,
03:43how to use the toilet,
03:45how to prevent yourself from different infections.
03:49Our staff is involved.
03:51They go to the camps.
03:53We also go there.
03:54We have community mobilizers.
03:56They go to homes and community centres.
03:59They aware all the women who live in the camps.
04:05Despite the ongoing efforts of UNHCR and local authorities,
04:09the situation in refugee camps is far from ideal.
04:14The head of the UNHCR sub-office in Peshawar
04:17admits that more needs to be done
04:20to ensure proper hygiene and sanitation in the camps.
04:24We are working with our partners,
04:26and other funded and non-funded partners,
04:31and other UN agencies like UNICEF and other collaborators
04:36to make sure that all the refugee villages
04:39have sanitation levels that is acceptable
04:43to all our international standards.
04:47We need to do more.
04:48I agree that we are not at where we want to be,
04:52but hopefully we will work with our partners.
04:55I talked to our donors as well in the area of WASH.
04:59Until more funding for these refugee camps is secured,
05:02Afghan women and girls will have to continue waiting for toilets
05:06that will give them the safety and privacy they need.