December 10, 2003	Wednesday	Shawwal 15, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: Chairman Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) Dr Akram Kowhloon on Tuesday said the water quality monitoring had shown that in none of the 21 major cities of Pakistan the water supplied to the people was fit for drinking.

He said this in his opening address at a national seminar organized by ActionAid Pakistan, TheNetwork and other NGOs here.

Dr Kowhloon said access to safe drinking water was one of the basic human rights. A major problem, he observed, was lack of awareness among an overwhelming majority of the people about the implications of unhygienic drinking water. He said the PCRWR had drawn up a plan to establish water treatment plants at 22 places in collaboration with the local councils.

Dr Irfan of the Environmental Sciences Department of Allama Iqbal Open University highlighted high concentration of lead in water supply in some sectors of Islamabad on the basis of the samples obtained from Simly Dam as well as from the filtration plant.

Lead, he pointed out, was highly injurious to human beings, especially the children who may suffer from mental retardation. While the source of water was free of lead, it was at the consumer end that it got contaminated. This was due to the corrosion of pipes. High proportion of lead was also due to the repairs involving welding, he added.

Mr Mustafa Talpur, Senior Programme Officer, ActionAid, shared with the audience the preliminary results of a national drinking water & sanitation survey carried out by his organization.

Preliminary scrutiny of 1,700 out of 7,000 questionnaires sent to the households in 15 districts of Pakistan showed that 16.9 per cent families get water from piped schemes, 26 per cent from handpumps and 15 per cent from wells, canals, ponds etc, 10 per cent of population has to walk more than 2 km and 40 per cent more than 1 km to fetch water, 60 per cent believe there is not enough water at source, 20 per cent people spend over 2 hours to bring water, 36 per cent people believe water available to them is not safe, 51 per cent do not have latrines, 48 per cent don’t wash hands with soap, 87 per cent are unaware about requirements of hygiene, 89 per cent people said there was no public latrine, 52 per cent people believe women suffer in situations of water shortage, 82 per cent people believe women face water and sanitation problems outside home, 52 per cent families experienced sickness in current year, more than 60 per cent diseases are water-borne, mean days of sickness are 75 and mean expenses incurred by a family in a year are Rs7,500.

The other speakers included Dr Fouzia, Country Director, Action Aid; Dr Haroon Ibrahim, Project Coordinator, TheNetwork; Dr Mohammad Yusuf of Unicef, Ms Rachel Leiber of Mercy Corps; Liaqat Banori of SHARP, Dr Nasir Mahmood, Public Health Specialist; Dr Mehmood Khawaja of SDPI and Prof (Dr) M.D. Shami, Vice-President, Islamic Academy of Science.

A highlight of the seminar was formation of a coalition of NGOs which would work towards ensuring supply of safe drinking water to the consumers and help the government in drafting a National Drinking Water Policy.