Once a week Daad Muhammad packs up his donkey-cart with jerry cans and plastic water bags and travels from Sheetam, his small village in Turbut, Balochistan, to a water filtration plant five kilometers away at a place called Singhanisar, to get clean drinking water for his family.

"We used to get water at home from a tube well," Daad Muhammad says, "but gradually the water started tasting salty and my children became sick. That was when we realized the importance of clean drinking water. We stopped drinking that water." Water-borne and sanitation-related diseases are responsible for nearly 60 percent of the total number of child mortality cases in Pakistan. More than 200,000 children under the age of five die every year due to diarrheal diseases - approximately 630 every day.

The USAID-funded Pakistan Safe Drinking Water and Hygiene Promotion Project (PSDW-HPP) reaches 40 districts throughout Pakistan, and together with the private sector, local NGOs, and the Government of Pakistan helps more than 30 million Pakistani citizens gain access to clean water and better sanitation conditions. As a result, health conditions in vulnerable populations are improving.

Daad Muhammad learned about the filtration plant at a community gathering organized by a PSDW-HPP NGO partner at Singhanisar. "I travel miles to get drinking water," said Daad Muhammad, "but even in the blistering sun and sandy winds, it is worth the effort."

USAID's Pakistan Safe Drinking Water and Hygiene Promotion Project supports the Government of Pakistan by providing technical assistance and institutional capacity to maintain more than 6,000 water filtration plants that the Government installed under its Safe Drinking Water for All initiative.

When Daad Muhammad's children fall sick from diarrhea, he finds it difficult to pay for doctors on his low income. "I'm the only breadwinner for my family of seven. With my children now living a healthy life, it feels fulfilling."