Pakistan Safe Drinking Water: Poor-Infrastructure, No-Public Awareness, Weak-Garbage Disposal Plan and Minimal-Extensive Research?

Safe Drinking Water: Infrastructure, Public Awareness, Garbage Disposal Plan and Extensive Reseach Needed

A political will is needed to resolve the problem which should initiate media campaigns for public awareness, design effective garbage removal strategies and fund university level research for long term solutions

Setting up 24 water testing labs at a cost of 1.2 billion PKR to identify contamination in drinking water seems to be an appreciable move by the government of Pakistan as water contamination is found to be the leading cause of many diseases across the country. However, the testing results intimidated that more than 69 to 82 percent Pakistanis consume "contaminated and unsafe water."  

The Minister of Science and Technology Rana Tanveer told the Senate on Tuesday that the Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) had conducted various water quality monitoring projects in the country and said 69 percent of 82 per cent water samples collected from 2,807 villages in 24 districts were found contaminated or unsafe for drinking.
According to a Dawn Report. the PCRWR, which is a research and development organization of the Ministry of Science and Technology, reported that major contamination was due to bacteria (coliforms), toxic metals (mainly arsenic), turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS) and nitrate and fluoride pollution. While microbiological contamination remains one of the leading causes of cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis, typhoid etc., arsenic can cause various types of diabetes, skin, kidney, heart, black foot diseases, hypertension, birth defects and multiple types of cancer, according to the PCRWR.

Other crucial initiatives are needed to ensure drinkable water supply. One of which is infrastructure through self-sufficient and self-sustained projects. It's been more than half century, we are witnessing World Bank and IMF financed projects which eat up around 80 percent of the funding (actually loan)  in the name of consultancy and feasibility reports; rest is consumers by the administrative expenses and salaries of the staff. We all witness million dollars of humanitarian funding adds to our loans with practically no difference in infrastructure improvement and Pakistanis lives. 

A multitude of  other measures is required if we are really willing to move in the right direction. A safe and effective garbage removal infrastructure and a consistent SafeGuard style media campaign for the citizens is also badly needed if we really want to move in the right direction.Without an effective investment in the garbage disposal, drinkable water supply will remain an unfulfilled dream. Leaving this problem unresolved aggregate government health budget.

Leaving these problems unresolved aggregate government health budget. Importing expensive medicines and medical infrastructure is a heavy burden on foreign exchange.  A consistent political will backed by extensive research is required to resolve the problem. What is the role of our universities with heavy academic budgets if they can not propose sustainable solutions for our everyday problems? These problems need Ph. D level research studies and we have young graduates willing to pursue research on crucial present and future problems. In the western world institutes like PCRWR work closely with universities researchers and professors tenure and his department funding is based on the results of his research outcomes.

Media Bites Editorial - Tazeen Hasan

Published on September 15, 2016