Pakistan’s Health Minister Mustafa Kamal has issued a stark warning that from Gilgit to Karachi people are being forced to drink sewage contaminated water resulting in 68 percent of illnesses across the country. He condemned the state of public health infrastructure calling it less a healthcare system and more a sick care system and argued that immediate reforms are needed to shift the focus from treatment to prevention.

Kamal described Pakistan’s environment as a factory producing sickness noting that poor sanitation and unsafe water are taking a heavy toll on public health. He added that doctors are severely overburdened treating up to 300 patients per day when the actual manageable number is around 35 to 40. Another pressing issue is population growth which he said adds more people annually than the population of New Zealand while an alarming 11,000 mothers die each year during pregnancy.

He emphasized that millions especially in Karachi struggle to access clean drinking water turning public health into one of Pakistan’s most significant crises. Kamal also pushed for strengthening the local pharmaceutical industry stating that there is regional demand such as in Afghanistan and that the government is committed to supporting domestic medical exports and production.