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| May 17, 2005 | Tuesday | Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1426 |
Call to devise policy on access to clean water
ISLAMABAD, May 16: Participants of a seminar on Monday urged policymakers to formulate a policy on access to clean drinking water on emergency basis. The seminar, organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), criticized the government for its lacklustre response to the recent outbreak of water-borne disease in Larkana district and its adjoining areas.
The participants said during the last couple of months, people were continuously dying due to water-related diseases and there was no response from the federal or provincial governments.
Speakers also contested government’s claim that over 90 per cent of the country’s population had access to clean drinking water.
Ghulam Mustafa Talpur of ActionAid said during the last six weeks 76 deaths were recorded whereas 6,672 people were hospitalized for drinking dirty water.
Quoting various international conventions, he said drinking water was a human right and it should be respected, protected and fulfilled without any discrimination. He said there was no focal government department to look after policy issues related to drinking water.
“We don’t have drinking water policy since the last 58 years and water supply is under-financed and low priority area for policymakers and planners,” Mr Talpur said.
“The drinking water situation is alarming in Sindh. Emergency measures are badly needed to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people,” he said.
Dr Ehsan Latif of The Network, who also moderated the debate, said water quality and accessibility was not the only reason associated with drinking water problem, but bad governance and mismanagement of water supply were also among the major reasons.
“Under local government laws, district governments are responsible for the supply of water to the citizens but these governments are not equipped with proper monitoring mechanisms, budgetary allocations and skilled staff,” he said. “The government has to come up with national water policy and it should be linked with sanitation and reflect equitable distribution of drinking water approach,” he summarized.
Dr Zulfiqar Rahujo, President, Health and Education Society, Larkana, told the audience that the recent incident in which more than 15 people died in a small village of Shahdadkot district was only due to the consumption of contaminated water of Hammal Lake.
“Releasing Right Bank Outfall Drain’s (RBOD) effluents into the fresh water lake is the main cause of killings in the area,” he said.
Sajida Rahujo, a community representative from Shahdadkot district, informed the seminar that people were consuming polluted drinking water which was highly dangerous not only to human beings but also to animals.
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