September 14, 2002	Saturday	Rajab 6, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 13: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) lacks qualified staff and required equipment for performing tests at its Water Testing Laboratory.

This concern was expressed at a meeting attended by the representatives of The Network for Consumer Protection, National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Capital Citizens Committee.

The meeting was organized by the Network for Consumer Protection, an NGO, at the CDA lab, situated at its sewerage water treatment plant.

It was observed that the authority was responsible for testing of water supplied from all sources, including tubewells, but essential equipment like hot water oven, incubator, water bath, colony counter, refrigerator, petri dishes and even sample bottle were missing from the micro biological section of its laboratory.

Due to non-availability of qualified microbiologists and equipment, microbiological test could not be conducted in the lab, and, as a result, contaminated water was being supplied to the consumers, the participants said.

One of the participants quoted a recent study of Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority, confirming that 75 per cent of water supplied by the CDA to its consumers was microbiologically unfit for drinking. Another study has shown alarmingly high prevalence of lead in drinking water in the federal capital. Absence of effective and reliable testing labs was considered a major hurdle in improving water quality.

The participants said the authority must employ at least one microbiologist and two technicians for efficient working at the water testing lab.

The NIH representative, Dr Jamal Abdul Nasir, told the participants that as per its (NIH) agreement, training of CDA staff would start from September 16. It will help in the capacity building of the staff.

It was also decided at the meeting that the Network for Consumer Protection and the NIH would help the CDA in its endeavours to provide clean water to the people. Dr Haroon Ibraheem, a participant, expressed hope that collaboration between the CDA and the NIH would help improve drinking water quality in the capital.