LAHORE, April 12: Water quality in the Punjab is fast deteriorating and the situation calls for urgent and effective measures before the situation becomes irretrievable.
Speakers addressing day-long deliberations during a seminar on 'Safe water supply in Punjab' expressed this concern while citing water quality studies and investigation conducted by national and international organizations on the water quality.
The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) has launched a national-level programme for monitoring the quality of water in Pakistan since March 2001. The PCRWR on the basis of a study conducted in 21 cities of the country, including 11 cities of the Punjab, made the following conclusions:
Excess of arsenic and fluoride concentrations beyond safe limits were found in several cities of the Punjab. Out of 11 cities tested, higher arsenic content was found in six cities namely Multan, Bahawalpur, Sheikhupura, Lahore, Kasur and Gujranwala.
The results of a study by Unicef revealed that a reasonable number of Punjab's population was exposed to high arsenic concentration in their drinking water which caused severe health problems.
Another study conducted by the Environment Protection Agency on the quality of subsoil water in 14 district of the Punjab revealed that 239 samples out of 280 when tested were found to be unfit for human consumption.
More than two million people in the surveyed districts are drinking contaminated water which has higher than the WHO permissible level of arsenic.
The studies revealed that deterioration in groundwater quality was due to disposal of untreated domestic and industrial waste in rivers and canals specially in Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Kasur, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and other main urban towns.
Water in these areas at shallow levels was unfit for human consumption due to contamination. The seminar which was held with a concern to disseminate reports about the quality of drinking water called for several measures some of which are:
The permissible level of arsenic in drinking water for Pakistan may be fixed at 0.05mg/litre (50 ppb) which is safe enough; population should be sensitized to use deeper water tables to avoid contamination; the Punjab government may allocate substantial resources as 50 per cent urban and 27 per cent rural sector is without proper water supply system; a programme be initiated to observe changes in surface and groundwater quality as well as groundwater levels; water testing laboratories, presently in five cities of the Punjab only, be established at all district headquarters; local governments be equipped with technical know-how and funds for regular monitoring of water quality; low-cost arsenic removal filters developed by PCRWR be distributed among the people of the affected areas where no alternate water supply is available; tubewells should not be promoted further in the arsenic high risk areas or they should have treatment facilities attached to them; and a comprehensive survey be initiated in other district of the Punjab.
MINISTER: As many as 90 per cent water supply schemes in rural areas are not based on holistic approach which affects the water quality over the years. This was stated by Punjab Law Minister Basharat Raja while speaking at a seminar on 'Safe water supply in Punjab' held by the Punjab Local Government Department in collaboration with Unicef.
The minister regretted that due to lack of proper planning, research and preventive measures, there was incidence of contamination of drinking water. He urged the Nazims to be most sincere in taking up public welfare and local development projects.
He said Unicef had taken a number of public health-oriented projects, saying the government alone could not assume the responsibility of social sector development due to a resource constraint.
Unicef's Punjab chief provincial officer Dr Ayman Abulban said the agency had been working at federal as well as provincial levels to gauge the arsenic contamination of groundwater. He said: "Our knowledge of the problem is yet to improve in various important fronts to help make a difference - in the province and the country."
Junaid Kamal Ahmad from the NGO sector said it took five to 10 years for arsenic to affect health and called for measures from the government in this regard.
Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources chairman Dr Mohammad Akram Kahloon said a survey was in progress in which village level testing was being done in areas of Dera Ghazi Khan, Layyah, Muzaffargarh, Sargodha and Jhang districts where 9,000 water sources would be tested for arsenic contamination.
He said low-cost filters developed by PCRWR should be distributed among the people of the affected areas. Other speakers presented research findings of water quality in the Punjab undertaken over the last few years, but being made public for the first time ever. The moot will constitute a technical committee on Tuesday with a mandate to come up with an action plan. -APP
