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| July 26, 2005 | Tuesday | Jumadi-us-Sani 18, 1426 |
WHO calls for supplying safe water to flood victims
PESHAWAR, July 25: The World Health Organisation has called for efforts to provide clean drinking water to the flood-affected people of Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera districts. “There is likelihood of spread of water-borne diseases in these areas. We should immediately take remedial and preventive measures to prevent the ailments,” said a WHO official.
The alarm was raised by the world health agency after a report on the flood-hit districts showed that water supplied there was unfit for human consumption. The Society for Sustainable Development, which is involved in water testing activities in the flood-hit areas of the three districts, has said that more than 90 per cent of the water testing results have shown heavy biological contamination.
Water samples were selected randomly from over 200 sites of the three districts, official said, adding that water from 70 hand pumps, wells, tube-wells and water supply schemes was tested in each district and contamination rate was found alarmingly high.
The society, the official said, had so far contributed about Rs500,000 in the shape of water purification kits and chemicals, besides providing the services of technical staff, logistic support and related administrative cost to provide drinkable water to the affected population.
The society has asked the World Health Organisation to extend assistance to it so that it could launch preventive activities to save the people from being hit by water-borne diseases.
“Being a funding agency for development activities, the responsibility falls on you to provide us funds for making the contaminated water drinkable and safe for daily use in the flood hit areas of the districts,” the society stated in a letter sent to the WHO.
It said that it required Rs600,000 for cleaning hand pumps and wells and carrying out disinfecting activities at them.
According to the society, it also needs assistance to the tune of Rs300,000 for the repair of the 20 water supply schemes, besides provision of logistic support, including two vehicles.
Apart from it, the society has also told the WHO that it needed Rs60,000 for the salaries of technical staff, besides another Rs100,000 as administrative cost for two months.
WHO official said that they had already warned against the onset of the epidemics and water-borne ailments and were concerned about the situation.
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