The Economic Cost of Inadequate Water and Sanitation in Pakistan

Abstract

While the state of sanitation in Pakistan has improved from 2013 to 2018, a significant proportion of its population is still surviving with either a limited, unimproved, or no toilet facility at all. This translates into considerable adverse consequences ranging from morbidity to mortality. Even so, research regarding inadequate sanitation in Pakistan remains limited. Hence, the present research fills this gap calculating the economic cost of inadequate sanitation in Pakistan using cost benefit analysis. The results show that cumulative economic impact of health, water, welfare, tourism, and drainage user costs, PKR 910.40 billion (USD 4.96 billion), which accounts for 1.91 percent of Pakistan’s GDP. Of this, the health-related costs account for the highest burden, followed by the other welfare costs, water-related costs, tourism-related costs, and finally, the drainage user cost. Even though these figures present an alarming situation, it is possible to mitigate the economic cost through water, sanitation-, and hygiene related interventions. More specifically, they can cumulatively generate economic gains amounting to PKR 1890.65 billion (USD 2.64 billion), which exceed the economic losses by PKR 980.26 billion (USD 5.34 billion).