ON July 6, a conference was held by an NGO to discuss Tharparkar’s drinking water supply. I would like to point out that several incorrect statements were made there.

At the conference, speakers claimed that it was not possible to provide canal water to Thar through pipelines. It was also said that reverse osmosis (RO) plants could provide a good solution to the water issue. These statements are wrong and misleading.

People in rural and remote areas, in Asia, are provided with treated and safe drinking water through a rural water supply system. A slow-sand filtration water treatment system is used for the treatment of surface water (usually a canal or stream). The treated water is supplied through pipelines to people at their point of use.

This is an established practice, and the same can be adopted in Thar.

RO plants are not the solution. They produce contaminated water. Brine, produced by these plants, is a major disposal problem. They degrade soil and create unhealthy surroundings. There are over 2,000 RO plants in Thar, and all of them are a total wreck.

Lawmakers, legislators and local government officials should read the report of the Commission of Inquiry, prepared by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro (Feb 25, 2017), which says: “Therefore, there appears no justification to continue with these RO plants and spend millions and millions of rupees blindly on their so-called O&M, when we neither know the quality of the water being supplied from these plants nor the quantity against which we are making payments.”

The Supreme Court of Pakistan is requested to order the Sindh government to stop wasting money on RO plants and provide regular municipal water supply in Thar based on the sound established principles of water supply engineering for rural areas.

A Citizen

Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2019