ISLAMABAD, Jan 3: Chief of Water Planning Commission Naseer Gillani on Monday said that more than 80 million people across Pakistan had no access to clean and safe water while about 70 per cent diseases were water borne all over the country.

He expressed these views while speaking at a seminar on “Household Water Treatments (HWTs), Best Practices: Solar Water Disinfection” organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in collaboration with Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) here at the National Press Club. Shakeel Ramay, head of climate change study centre at SDPI conducted the proceedings.

“We are providing improved but not safe water to the people”, Gillani remarked. He said that it was necessary to create awareness among the masses regarding the technologies to clean the water. He said a lot of money was required to implement the standards.

He said that the SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection Method) was the best option as it had proved effective in Africa. He said though it was not a complete solution yet it helped a lot in dealing with the issue.

He said, “SODIS method is also a way to combat the onslaught of multinational corporations. It is a real case of out of pocket solution. It is a panacea for those using water from ponds, taps or wells.”

Dr Shaukat Farooq, Project Manager, Sheladia Associates, said that ultraviolet waves disinfect water and also kill the bacteria. Referring to studies, he said that disinfection was the most effective at temperatures between 40 and 46 centigrade. He said that SODIS was also effective against virus and coliform.

He said that the water could easily be analysed by using membrane filter technology and 24 hours were needed to analyse coliform or faecel-coliform. Hence, he said that the result time could be reduced with the help of the scientists. He said that absence of faecel-coliform ensures absence of disease-causing bacteria. He said that field studies were mostly done in Pakistan in summer while the studies should be done in the winter and the monsoon seasons. He said that the universities and the NGOs should be approached to have up-to-date data for better opinions.

Mome Saleem, Research Associate, at SDPI said that Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) technology was absolutely free of cost especially in countries with high temperature. However, other methods were also applicable but substantively costly, she maintained.

Ms Mome said that SODIS was a simple method which could be applied free of cost and without the use of energy. She said that contaminated water could be disinfected by filling it in a transparent food-grade plastic bottle and exposing it to the sun for six hours. She said that one dollar per annum per person expenses were involved in this method contrary to other water treatment methods which also involved costly energy. She said, “We want to involve and engage media to send the message to the masses at large as it was very easy method and should be part of our water policies especially related to disaster-stricken areas.”

She said that a pilot project on SODIS was started in Faisalabad in 2002 by Swiss Federal Institution for Environmental Sciences and Technology which was later on taken up by SDC.

She said that an estimated 62 per cent urban and 84 per cent rural population did not treat water as they considered transparent water as clean. Ms Mome said that the central distribution system of water was prone to contamination due to broken pipes and links.

In this instance, she said, household water treatments were most effective to reduce water-borne diseases particularly diarrhoea which could be reduced to 39 per cent through this method. She said, “Microbial, chemical and turbidity are three broad categories of contamination while SODIS also helps remove microbiological contamination.”

During the question hour, Mr Gillani said that a study in Switzerland indicated that in winter, the water bottles should be kept in the sun for two hours. He said that boiling was better than SODIS but SODIS was cost effective and energy free.