| March 11, 2007 | Sunday | Safar 21, 1428 |
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... Not a drop to drink
IT IS not possible to find a man in the street who believes a word of what is said by our governments in the ‘advertisement supplements’, some euphemistically called ‘special supplements’, published in our press singing the praises of their own men paid for by public money. If one exists, totally unconnected with the government, I would like to meet him.
When Nawaz Sharif, a likeable man but a useless prime minister, offered me the governorship of Sindh, one of the reasons I declined the offer was that I questioned what good I would be able to do. If ten poor men appeared at my gate bemoaning the fact that they had no access to potable water, what answer was I expected to give? That is your problem? Or, am I answerable for what happens in Sindh? What can one say to simple men?
Matters have improved somewhat, our prime minister, Banker Shaukat Aziz, appears to be worried about the lack of water. But what will he be able to do?
On February 16, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) embarked on a campaign to improve, protect and maintain the quality of fresh water in Pakistan with a front-page quarter-page ‘Appeal’ headed ‘Pakistan’s Waters at Risk’ in most of the leading newspapers of the country.
The WWF was joined by the NGOs Shehri-Citizens for a Better Environment, Human Welfare and Nature Conservation Society, Pakistan Environmental Law Association, Sungi Development Foundation, Action Aid Pakistan, and Pani Pakistan. The appeal was addressed to the president of Pakistan, the prime minister of Pakistan, and the Chief Justice of Pakistan and pointed out to them the critical and deteriorating situation of water in this Land of the Pure. Emphasising the gravity of the situation was the lead statement : “As you read this, a child lies dying in hospital due to contaminated water.”
The appeal highlighted recent alarming data, statistics and documents generated by local, governmental and international agencies, including the National Institute of Health, World Bank Country Water Resources Assistance Strategy, Government of Pakistan Planning Commission, Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources, World Health Organisation, Government of Pakistan State of the Environment Report 2005, and USAID.
To quote the WWF : “While we appreciate government efforts such as the Clean Drinking Water Project providing filtration plant in each union council, water in Pakistan remains seriously contaminated. By far the worst polluters are the industrial, municipal and agricultural sectors, as the wastewater they produce flows untreated into natural water courses.
“Contaminated water causes major health problems, 20-40 per cent of the people in hospitals are suffering from water-borne diseases — gastroenteritis, typhoid, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis, cancer, birth defects and other serious diseases. Agricultural runoff is poisoned with pesticides and fertilisers. Chemical contaminants are found in drinking water in most major cities, including Karachi, Hyderabad, Quetta, Peshawar, Abbotabad, Multan, Kasur, Lahore and even Islamabad.”
Shockingly, but not surprisingly, the appeal informed our leaders and us that : “Every third Pakistani drinks unsafe water. In 14 districts of Punjab 85 per cent of groundwater samples tested were considered unfit for human consumption, forcing over two million people to drink unsafe water. Seventy five per cent of Islamabad’s water and 87 per cent of Rawalpindi’s is unsafe for human consumption. Fifteen out of 48 collected brands of bottled water were found unfit. Thirty-six per cent of the population of Sindh and Punjab is exposed to arsenic levels up to 50ppb. Ninty-nine per cent of industrial effluent and 92 per cent of urban wastewater is discharged untreated into rivers and the sea. 250,000 child deaths occur each year due to water-borne diseases. Health costs are estimated at Rs.114 billion”
As pointed out, the stark fact is that although environmental laws and policies exist, they are not enforced. The Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1977, the National Environmental Quality Standards, the National Drinking Water and Sanitation Policies, the National Water and Environment Policies all exist to make sure that Pakistan does not run out of water and that the people are given good quality water for drinking and agricultural purposes. But, as is the norm in this state bereft of law and order where the writ of the state barely exists, there is no policing, and industries and municipalities flout the laws with impunity as they exist in the statute books.
As members of a supposed civil society, the WWF and the NGOs appealed to the powers that be that water environmental standards be enforced; concerned agencies and industries be compelled to treat industrial and municipal waste-water; and that a water quality monitoring commission (including civil society members) be set up for implementation of the regulatory framework.
The focus of the appeal campaign by these concerned civil society organisations is to provide safe and affordable drinking water to the citizens by lobbying for the enforcement of regulatory and policy framework that are meant to protect ecologically important habitat and water resources and to prevent contamination of drinking water from water sources to water tap.
WWF’s complete report of February 2007 ‘Pakistan’s Waters at Risk: Water and Health related Issues in Pakistan and Key Recommendations’ can be downloaded from http://www.wwfpak.org/pdf/water-report.pdf and needs to be read and studied and acted upon by those appealed to and by their factotums who mismanage the affairs of this country.
The report was launched at the Lahore Press Club on February 15 by WWF Director of Fresh Water and Toxics Program Hammad Naqi. In his address he stressed the fact that the presence of arsenic in our underground water is beyond the limits set by international agencies and that many national and international companies are tapping underground water for bottled water, not only depleting water resources but endangering life.
One alarming fact given in the report is that per capita annual water availability in Pakistan has decreased from 5,000 cubic metres (m3) in 1951 to 1,100m3 today, and is projected to cross the World Bank defined ‘water stressed’ line of 1,000m3 by 2010. Not much time is left to us to implement a water conservation, water use efficiency and a recycling strategy — such as in Israel where the slogan ‘Don’t waste a drop’ is practised in every home.
There is good news: the appeal seems to have caught the attention of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, as he has invited representatives of the seven NGOs to Islamabad this coming Tuesday to discuss the WWF report. Regrettably, his government’s present philosophy of ‘development at all costs’ does not augur well for the enforcement of the law and the diversion of resources required to eliminate the danger we and coming generations face from the dangerously deteriorating water situation.
In Pakistan, water availability is now an inter-provincial squabble and a heated political issue. Since our rain falls for only three months in the year, how we store, preserve and recycle water, how we safeguard the rights of the canal tail-ender/lower riparian, how we manage the annual variations in droughts and floods, how we plan to provide food (which needs water) and potable water for an ever-increasing population, how we adequately supply industries and municipalities, how we eliminate over-pumping of aquifers, etc, etc will become increasingly critical. There may be much truth in the prediction that the next major world conflict will be over water.
In addition to quantity, quality is also a major problem. For example, in a news item on February 15, this newspaper reported that two cusecs (2.6 million gallons per day) of poisonous effluents generated by Kotri-based industrial units is once again being released into the Kalri Baghar (KB) Feeder which supplies drinking water to Karachi and Kotri. The protests of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency, and the Karachi City Council have so far fallen on deaf ears.
We do not have water, water everywhere, nor do we have enough drops to drink (with apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge).
E-mail: arfc@cyber.net.pk
