PESHAWAR, May 23: Consumption of contaminated water has been causing diarrhoeal ailments in the NWFP, according to a Unicef official. “Sixty per cent of the diseases in the province are due to persistent use of contaminated water by people,” said the official working on a water project.
Citing a report of the health management information system (HMIS) of the health department, he said that 60 per cent of people visiting hospitals suffered stomach-related problems caused by the consumption of polluted water.
The government’s data about water contamination is often unauthentic, but rough estimates do suggest that water pollution is chiefly to blame for most ailments in the province.
According to a Unicef study conducted in Hangu district where people use spring water, bacterial colonies were found in 196 springs out of the total 200.
The official said that spring water was naturally clean and fit for human consumption but the pollution was caused by animals drinking water from there.
Moreover, people routinely washed their vehicles on the banks of these springs that contaminated them and made their water unfit for human use, he said.
Likewise, a similar study conducted in tehsil Takhtbhai had found that 45 out of 50 water samples contained bacteria due to which 58 per cent of people in the area suffered from diarrhoea while 10 per cent were afflicted by dysentery.
The official said that the total annual budget of Takhtbhai tehsil was Rs20 million while people there spent a sum more than this budget on the treatment of their diarrhoeal diseases.
Unicef has been active in Frontier for the past three decades and has been shifting strategies to provide clean drinking water to the people.
“In Takhtbhai tehsil, we had started an awareness campaign in eight hamlets to persuade the people to build latrines because 70 per cent of the households lived there without this facility,” he said. “As a result of the advocacy, now the latrine coverage has touched 100 per cent mark.”
According to the him, Unicef would replicate the strategy in Mardan and Charsadda as well where sanitation coverage stood at 18 and 16 per cent, respectively.
In the past, Unicef provided subsidy to people to ensure better water supply and sanitation facilities. Now the UN agency has shifted its focus on advocacy. It supports initiatives of adopting latest technologies for getting pure water.
“We want the government to adopt durable strategies because the donor-driven projects often remain ineffective, especially when they abandon such schemes,” he added.
Initially, Unicef worked in close collaboration with the tube-well drilling division of the Public Health Engineering Department, which has now been closed. Similarly, it assisted people in the implementation of low-cost water supply schemes such as installation of hand-pumps, drilling of tube-wells and construction of latrines in rural areas by supplying them free cement, commodes, etc.
Moreover, the UN agency is building latrines in schools for children because bad water infected children the most and the organization was supposed to protect children across the world.
Contaminated water in some villages of Swabi, Karak and Risalpur has been causing teeth problems among children due to the presence of fluoride in water.