STAFF REPORT IBD: The Pakistan Engineering Congress (PEC) has recommended the government to set up National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) in order to solve the issue of contamination of drinking water as presently only 25.61 per cent of the total population in the country has access to safe drinking water due to shortage or contamination of water resources.
It also suggested the introduction of 100 per cent metering to ensure water supply to urban areas, to boost the revenues and provide funding for capital works. 30,000 meters need to be installed in Punjab alone.
According to the report, an estimated 975.771 million gallons of water goes waste annually in Pakistan and 9,000 million gallons of waste water having 20,000 tons BOD loading rate are discharged into water. The algae based water treatment is an economical and efficient way of treating waste water, it is an economical and efficient way of treating waste water coming from different drains of Lahore under Water and Sanitation Authority (WASA).
It was also recommended that construction of mega-dams should be started on fast track as well as use of Household Water Treatment appliances should be promoted.
At present irrigation uses about 93 per cent of the water currently utilised in the country. The rest is used for supplies to urban and rural population and industry. It is projected that water availability will be less than 700 cubic meters per capita by 2025.