ISLAMABAD, April 27: The Secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Khawaja Zaheer, informed a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the Parliament House on Wednesday that most of the people in the country were drinking contaminated water.

“We are drinking poison,” said the secretary while answering questions about water contamination in different parts of the country.

The secretary said results of a survey on water quality conducted in 22 cities of the country were not encouraging, and in some cases 100 per cent water contamination had been detected.

In southern Punjab and Sindh, the arsenic levels in water were dangerously high, he said, adding that projects had been launched in some schools in Sindh with the help of Unicef and the WHO to provide arsenic-free drinking water to schoolchildren.

In response to a question by MNA Hafiz Hussain Ahmed if a survey had been carried out to gauge the effects of the 1998 nuclear blasts in Chagai on water supply and health of the people in the area, the secretary said the ministry had not undertaken any such exercise.