ISLAMABAD, Aug 9: The draft of national water and sanitation policy will be ready by November, under which sewage treatment and solid waste disposal plants have been envisaged for all major cities, said Federal Minister for Environment Maj (retired) Tahir Iqbal on Tuesday.

He was speaking to reporters after his inaugural speech at a workshop on “Ensuring environmental sustainability”, held under the aegis of Pakistan Environment Programme.

The minister said private sector had already started taking interest in setting up of sewage treatment and waste disposal plants.

Defending the New Murree Project, he said, although, environment impact assessment (EIA) was yet to be carried out, it was quite clear that it would not cause any major environmental degradation, and all fears in this regard were unfounded.

Earlier, speaking at the workshop, the minister called for judicious use of water resources, warning that the country might be facing severe water shortage by 2010.

Water contamination, he said, was another cause of concern as it was assuming alarming proportions. He said: “Two thirds of children deaths are due to water contamination.”

He said the government would require an additional Rs10 billion to set up water filtration plants in all union councils. The government has already allocated Rs10 billion for installation of filtration plants throughout the country.

The environment minister also called for checking deforestation which, besides other climatic changes, would also result in rising of sea level. Karachi, in this case, may be affected, he warned.

The government, he said, was directing its resources towards the achievement of Millennium Development Goals. “All policies, planning and programmes have been geared towards achievement of these targets.”

Environment protection aspect, the minister said, had been added to all public sector projects.

In addition, it has been made mandatory that all public sector projects would have to get environment impact assessment before they are taken up by the government for funding.