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| 17 April 2005 | Sunday | 07 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426 |
Unicef for provision of clean water
ISLAMABAD, April 16: United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has expressed concern over the tragedy of Qambar Ali Khan in Sindh and stressed the need for accelerated efforts to remove harmful substances from ground water to safeguard children’s health and protect communities from water-borne diseases.
In a statement issued here on Friday the Unicef country representative, Omar Abdi, said less than a year after the Hyderabad tragedy, an incident in which hundreds of people suffered from gastroenteritis and many of those who died were children, a similar incident has recently occurred in Qambar Ali Khan, in Sindh.
In addition, there must be numerous unreported cases. This is a major concern for all stakeholders advocating access to safe drinking water as a basic human right and reinforces the need for an accelerated water purification drive, he said in a statement on Friday.
Deploring the loss of life and suffering due to contamination of drinking water, Mr Abdi commended Pakistan in its efforts to increase resources for provision of safe drinking water to communities.
He said: “The Unicef and the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) are committed to continue collaboration with the government to develop arsenic removal technologies, equipment and its installation in the affected areas.”
Mr Abdi reiterated that as a serious public health concern, arsenic contamination was one of the emerging issues in Pakistan.
“It poses considerable threat to human health and can cause or aggravate cancer of the lungs, bladder, skin, prostate, kidney, nose and liver.
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