ISLAMABAD, March 22: The Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP) has stressed the need to promote responsible water usage patterns on the occasion of World Water Day, which is observed on March 22 every year.
This year, the theme of the day was “water for the future”. The CRCP expressed concern that irresponsible usage was a major reason behind unavailability of clean water.
In a press release issued here, the CRCP secretary-general, Mian Abrar Hafeez, said wastage of water by both the consumers and civic agencies was contributing to increase in water shortage in many cities.
Most of the cities do not get sufficient quantity of water supply to meet the demand of the residents.
In major cities like Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Karachi, the demand-supply gap is widening, not only due to water pilferage, but also because of wastage.
This can partly be attributed to fundamental flaws in the national water policy, which does not envisage a well-planned mechanism of water conservation and largely deals with the distribution of water, which usually proves temporary, he said.
Mr Hafeez said some municipal laws were in place to check water wastage, but these laws were hardly instrumental in serving the purpose of water conservation in household and industrial sectors.
According to a survey, 14 per cent water is wasted due to careless public attitude. Under the Capital Territory Municipal Bye-laws 1969, the CDA director sanitation is empowered to take appropriate actions against persons involved in wilful misuse and wastage of water through acts like washing of driveways, car wash etc.
In 2000, CDA issued 452 notices to the residents of different sectors under the law, but no strict action was taken against them.
The CRCP secretary-general said in addition to availability of water, quality of drinking water was also a major concern. He said most of the country’s population was deprived of safe drinking water.
According to an analysis of the World Health Organization, only 40 per cent of the country’s population had access to clean water.
The CRCP has urged the government to strictly enforce the municipal laws for checking water wastage. It also asked the household, commercial and public sector consumers to adopt responsible and careful usage patterns to conserve water for the future. It called for enactment of Safe Drinking Water Act in Pakistan to ensure access of the entire population to clean drinking water.