City Report and Action Plan

Faisalabad

Dr. Aslam Pervaiz
Deputy Director, Solid Waste Management
Thesil Municipal Administration Faisalabad
Pakistan

CITY REPORT

Faisalabad is situated approximately 100 km west of Lahore and has a population of 2.14 million. It is an industrial city, and being the nucleus of the textile industry in the area, it is actually known as the Manchester of Pakistan. Population density is 12,740 persons/km2 and the average number of persons per home is high at 7.3.

Pakistan is divided into provinces which are further separated into districts and Tehsil (or counties) which contain villages and municipalities. In 2001, TMA Tehsil Faisalabad succeeded the municipal corporation of Faisalabad. The Tehsil council of Faisalabad is the city's elected body and consists of union councils, women, workers and minorities. The council is headed by a nazim, which is the equivalent of mayor.

Reproductive Health

Pakistan has a high total fertility rate of 4.8. Infant mortality is also high at 77.5 deaths per thousand births. Approximately 88% of children under age 1 are immunized against measles. Maternal mortality rate is 4.25, and approximately 85% of births are attended by a qualified health worker.

Public Health is administered by the district and provincial governments. The master plan for public health promotion set out various objectives to be achieved by the end of 2005 as follows: (1) eradication of polio through special campaigns in the district, (2) establishment of a national program on family planning and primary health care to be largely executed by female health workers, (3) improvement of preventive health care in the community through extension of immunization programs, control of communicable diseases, improvement in sanitary conditions and better health education, (4) provision of health care to outdoor/indoor patients, (5) provision of free emergency treatment, (6) capability to perform major and minor surgeries at district hospitals and rural health centers and (7) provision of diagnostic facilities like lab tests and x-rays and ambulance services, especially in rural areas.

Reproductive health services are provided through the following sources: (1) district government health facilities, including four Tehsil hospitals, 11 rural health centers, 169 basic health units, 67 zila council dispensaries, five government rural dispensaries, 34 city dispensaries and six mother/child health care centers, (2) the national Population Welfare Department, (3) the Prime Minister's program for family planning and family health, and (4) NGOs including the Family Planning Association of Pakistan, Marry Stopes and the Red Crescent.

HIV/AIDS

There is no official data on HIV/AIDS at the national or local level. However, UN estimates indicate that there could be approximately 70,000 cases of HIV/AIDS in the country. In Faisalabad, only four cases of HIV/AIDS have been confirmed, one of which is female. There is only one diagnostic facility in the city. In general, there is very little awareness of HIV/AIDS. There are no counseling services on HIV/AIDS and no test centers.

ACTION PLAN

Objectives

(As formulated by the government of Pakistan in the Ten Year Perspective Plan 2001-2011.)

1. To reduce population growth from 2.16 percent to 1.6 percent.
2. To increase contraceptive use from 27.8 percent to 53 percent.
3. To strengthen the ability of NGOs for service delivery, especially in slums and labor colonies.
4. To use a micro-credit program for the poor to help start new businesses.
5. To strengthen the program of lady health workers, as they deliver peer counseling and reproductive health services.
6. To improve the literacy rate from 64.7 percent.

Target group

A group of 1.1 million people of reproductive age.

Proposed measures and timeline

1. Encourage condom use through special campaigns.
2. Educate adults on proper use of condoms.
3. Work together with the Population Welfare Department.
4. Work with the Executive District Officer of Health to improve the service delivery of the lady health workers, and their training in reproductive health. (It is very difficult for female patients to move about for counseling.) Time frame: three months. Train lady health workers on peer counseling. Time frame: six months.
5. Ask the mayor to propose to NGOs working in our city that they create a peer counseling service using male volunteer youths. Time frame: eight months.
6. Enlist the support of religious leaders.
7. Establish a pilot voluntary testing and counseling center, with an initial budget allocation of 8,400 U.S. dollars. This would be set up in one of the city's dispensaries. The target population would be injecting drug users. Time frame: three months. Display posters to publicize center. Time frame: one month.

The organizations working in the fields of adolescent reproductive health and HIV/AIDS include the: 1) health department, 2) Population Welfare Department, 3) Prime Minister's Program of Reproductive Health and Primary Care, and 4) NGOs. We should meet monthly with these organizations. There should be quarterly assessments done by the Rural Sociology Department at the Faisalabad University of Agriculture.