PESHAWAR, June 5: Experts on Thursday called for better water management for providing the people with clean drinking water, saving them from water borne diseases.

They were speaking at a seminar on water management organised by the Sarhad Conservation Network, marking the World Environmental Day.

“According to a report compiled by the United Nations, about 40 per cent of the deaths are caused by water borne diseases, because of the consumption of polluted water,” Dr Mohammad Zahid of the University of Peshawar’s Geology Department said.

Criticizing the quality of drinking water in the Peshawar district and adjoining areas, he said that Peshawar’s water storage capacity was only 11 per cent of the city’s total water requirements.

Most of the city residents, he said, were dependent on ground water, which was insufficient to meet their requirements. Consequently, he added, the people were forced to use polluted water resulting in hepatitis and lung diseases.

Citing government statistics, he said the government spent Rs33.36 million annually on the 700 tube wells supplying water to the city’s water storage areas, which had not been cleaned for the past 30 years.

He said that the public money was being spent on 1,400-strong staff of the department responsible for supplying clean water to the city without caring for the quality of water to its consumers.

The water distribution network, he said, was in bad shape and pipeline ruptures were common leading to huge losses of water.

Describing supply of contaminated water as a health hazard, he said that lack of maintenance of the water supply system caused problems as rusty and leaking pipelines let polluted water into the supply of clean drinking water.

Lack of rains and excessive withdrawals the underground water level to fall to 100 feet in some places, causing most of the city’s tube wells to dry up.