PESHAWAR Durrani for new water and sanitation policy
By Our Correspondent
PESHAWAR, March 22: NWFP chief minister Akram Khan Durrani has urge the need for a national water and sanitation policy to improve management of existing water resources and provide safe drinking water to people.
“The federal government should formulate such a policy, as it is a federal subject, and provinces will work for its speedy implementation”, he said while speaking at a seminar on Tuesday. The seminar was organised by Water and Environmental Sanitation Network (WESNet), a Unicef funded project, in connection with the World Water Day which also marks beginning of a “Water for Life Decade” which envisages achieving various goals in water and sanitation sector by 2015.
Durrani urged union councillors, town nazim and civil society representatives to ensure sanitation in their areas. Safe water, he said, was essential for healthy life. He said his province was blessed with water resources but it was not being fully utilised for irrigation and agricultural purposes.
“We want our due share of net hydel profit in fulfilment of constitutional provisions,” said the chief minister, adding “the NWFP is not demanding its rights in the manner Balochistan has resorted to.”
The NWFP CM said MMA government had welcomed investors in the province and would also encourage international donors to initiate projects related to water and sanitation.
Unicef representative Farooq Khan Abbasi, in his presentation, said that there was neither a national sanitation policy nor an institution or regulatory authority to check water and sanitation apparatus. He said lack of a proper action plan was main hurdle in achievement of millennium development goals regarding provision of better and safe drinking water to about 50 per cent of population, so far deprived of this facility, by 2015. He said during a Unicef survey regarding sanitation and water quality in Mardan district of the NWFP, it was found out that about 30 per cent of the people did not have latrine facility at their houses and drank water which was found contaminated due to the proximity of water and sewerage pipelines. He said the sewerage systemic in the rural areas was found defective while hygiene-related knowledge, attitude and practices were also not very encouraging. He said another survey conducted in 2003 at Takht Bhai by Unicef revealed that polluted water was one of the major causes of water-borne diseases.
Shefiqur Rehman, chairman Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Peshawar, was of the view that no major project related to water and sanitation was ever completed which showed that the issue was not given priority by successive governments. He said Balochistan and Sindh provinces were faced with water shortage which warranted better management of water resources. He termed inappropriate and unscientific irrigation practices and crops system as the main cause of huge wastage of water.
Other speakers at the seminar urged that the provinces should be involved in policy making regarding pricing and usage of water. The royalty should be given to the headwater areas.
Sardar Idrees, minister for local governments, also expressed his concern over non-availability of safe drinking water and lack of knowledge and expertise for better management of water resources.
