Water Insecurity, Food Insecurity: What Community Perceptions of WASH in Punjab Reveal About Maternal Health, Child Nutrition, and Rural Resilience

Water Insecurity, Food Insecurity and Community Perceptions of WASH

Abstract

Across rural and peri-urban Punjab, Pakistan, water scarcity and unsafe sanitation remain endemic, with national data showing that waterborne illness accounts for roughly 80 percent of disease burden and a third of all deaths nationwide. A cross-sectional survey of 156 residents across multiple districts examined community awareness, lived experience, and willingness to engage on water and sanitation issues. Respondents demonstrated strong awareness that contaminated water threatens health, yet expressed persistent uncertainty and skepticism toward government monitoring, NGO assistance, and visible improvement in services; willingness to participate in solutions was high but conditional on credible institutional follow-through. Although the study was not designed to measure nutrition or food security outcomes directly, its findings carry direct implications for these domains. Unsafe water and poor sanitation are established drivers of diarrheal disease and child stunting, women's unpaid water-collection labor, and reduced agricultural productivity, all core determinants of household food security, maternal wellbeing, and child development. This brief translates the study's evidence into actionable recommendations spanning government policy, agricultural water management, nutrition-sensitive programming, and community governance, arguing that closing Pakistan's water and sanitation trust deficit is inseparable from achieving food security, gender equity, and sustainable rural transformation.