ISLAMABAD, April 18: Speakers at a workshop here on Monday asked the government to join hands with international donors and the private sector to provide clean drinking water across the country and eliminate water-borne diseases. The two-day workshop on “National Plan of Action for Arsenic Mitigation (NAPAM, 2005-2009)” has been organized by the Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).

The participants would float suggestions regarding a five- year national plan of action to control concentration of arsenic in water.

Inaugurating the event, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Nouraiz Shakoor said the quantitative and qualitative concern regarding water had necessitated an action plan for efficient development, utilization and management of water resources.

Water pollution, he said, had become a serious problem in Pakistan because about 40 per cent of the reported health problems were related to waterborne diseases. A countrywide programme launched by the PCRWR for monitoring the quality of water in southern Punjab and central Sindh had identified arsenic contamination, posing a threat to the health of the people, he said.

The minister said the per capita water availability had decreased from 5,300 to 1,200 cubic feet. The increasing gap between water supply and demand has led to severe water shortage. He also appreciated the PCRWR for installing indigenously- developed arsenic removal equipment in 100 girl schools of Punjab and Sindh. The task has been carried out with the financial assistance of the United Nations Development Programme and Unicef.

He said MoST had taken national initiatives like setting up of water-quality testing laboratories and filtration plants in each district at a total cost of Rs2.5 billion. The work on the project is still underway, he added.

PCRWR Chairman Dr Mohammad Akram Kahlown said arsenic contamination had emerged as a serious issue in South Asia. He said 30 districts out of 117 had been screened by Unicef, the PCRWR and the local governments of Punjab and Sindh. The results, he said, had shown presence of arsenic in ground water of southern Punjab (Multan, Bahawalpur and Rahimyar Khan) and central Sindh (Dadu, Khairpur, Nawab Shah and Tharparker). Luckily, no serious presence of arsenic had been found in Balochistan and the NWFP, he claimed.

To investigate the presence of arsenic in the remaining districts of Punjab and Sindh and to find some solution, the PCRWR and MoST had approved a three-year project worth Rs36 million, the chairman said. To test the quality of drinking water, he said, the PCRWR had been undertaking a national water quality monitoring programme for the past four years. He said 2005 was the fifth year of the programme, which covered 23 cities, 11 dams and lakes, and nine rivers and canals.

The monitoring network, the chairman said, had now been expanded to rural areas as well through another project, under which 2,600 villages of the four provinces would be covered.

To specifically focus on arsenic contamination monitoring and mitigation, a five-year action plan was drafted and it would be discussed during the workshop, he said. The project would be implemented with the help of the federal, provincial and international agencies. The estimated cost of the project is Rs520 million, he said.

Punjab Minister for Public Health Mushtaq Ahmed Kiani said the provincial government could provide clean drinking water to only five to 10 per cent of the population from its own resources.

In order to provide safe drinking water to 100 per cent of the population, he said, constant funding by the federal government and the international donors like Unicef and others was very important.

Punjab, he said, needed Rs200 billion to provide clean drinking water to a bigger chunk of the population during the next five years. World Health Organization Country Representative Dr Khalif Bille stressed the need for creating greater awareness among the masses regarding arsenic contamination, besides joint efforts to introduce arsenic removal technologies.

Others who spoke on the occasion included Unicef Country Representative Omar Ahmed Abdi and the Ministry of Local Government secretary, Shafqat Ezdi Shah.