ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: Water standards will be enforced in the country by the end of the year to improve quality of drinking water, sources said on Saturday.

Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has already formulated the standards and, according to the available reports, these will be slightly less stringent compared to the World Health Organization standards, keeping in view the local expediencies.

The sources said the unfortunate part of this otherwise encouraging development was that these standards would be only enforceable on bottled water, since the officials concerned were not willing to include the civic water supply in the ambit of the standards.

According to a recent report of the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), 75 per cent and 83 per cent of water samples taken from different parts of Islamabad and Rawalpindi respectively were not fit for human consumption due to presence of microbial content.

The PCRWR chief, announcing the findings, said faulty water distribution system, intermittent supply, leakage in supply lines and pollution from sewerage pipes were main causes of poor quality water in the two cities.

The agencies responsible for water supply in the twin cities are also duty-bound to provide clean water to the residents, the sources said.

In the absence of enforceable standards, consumer rights groups believe that the civic agencies cannot be effectively pursued to ensure supply of clean water.

In view of the situation, the Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan has demanded that water standards should be equally applicable to both bottled water and the water supplied by the civic agencies.

These standards are being formulated under the directions of the minister for science and technology, who has ordered the officials concerned to enforce the standards by December 30.

Previously, 41 items came under the standards enforced by the PSQCA. The sources, describing the history of safe water campaign in the country, said the PCRWR had drafted a Safe Drinking Water Act in 1996, but it could not be approved.

Subsequently, Pakistan Standards Institute formulated water standards, but the same could not be enforced either.

At present there are two international recommended standards for drinking water — International Bottled Water Association and World Health Organization standards. The private sector has been benefiting from the absence of enforceable water standards and unsafe bottled water is being openly marketed, the sources said.

The PCRWR studies have time and again revealed substandard bottled water brands, but their sale can not be stopped due to an absence of standards.

The CRCP, however, says that in the absence of proper legislation, the companies could have been tried under the Food Act, although that too is an ineffective law.— Zahra Syed