By M. Jahangir

THE INTEGRATION of factors like high literacy rate, health, substantial financial resources, food security and human resource can improve the fortune of a country at a massive scale. It has become an undeniable truth that those nations which are deprived of these assets, even partially, remain marred by instability for the infinite years in a row. In Pakistan, efforts are underway to improve and utilize the aforementioned factors in the best interest of the people. The Government of Pakistan is convinced of the benefits of approaching the problem in an integrated form.

Health sector of the lot nodoubt is most indispensable one. It will not be wrong to say that health forms the very base for the sustenance of other areas. Moreover, a country’s resourcefulness in terms of water availability rather to be precise clean water availability has a major role to play in the health related concerns.

Currently following steps are being taken to improve the drinking water situation in Pakistan.

Firstly, National Drinking Water Policy (NDWP) is in the process of making for the last 7 years, it (The Draft) has gone through several public feed backs, expert discussions and government review, which has changed the shape of the document and if not guided properly, it may be missing the target of helping anybody in sorting out the issue of drinking water quality and quantity to the poor consumer. The host department for this is

Secondly, National Drinking Water Standards (NDWS) has to bear the same fate as that of NDWP. But there is certainly a standard document, issued by the Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) for reference purposes. These standards are not mandatory for the providers like the standards for the bottled drinking water in Pakistan. The problem with this aspect of development is that we cannot test all parameters mentioned in these standards under one roof at an affordable cost any where in the country. This part is with the ministry of science and technology and being contested by ministry of health and ministry of environment for ownership.

Thirdly, around 6000 filtration plants have been installed by the Government across the country to provide an immediate relief in the form of safe-to-drink water. Ministry of Industries is the current host of this initiative, after being switched from ministry of environment for being slow with the progress. The main concern still in this project is that the plants already on ground are having serious issue in operation and maintenance.

Fourthly, National Water Quality Monitoring Program (NWQMP) is also underway. This program of sampling and analyzing drinking water from 21 cities started since 2002. Ministry of Science and Technology is the custodian of this program and four initial quality reports have already been issued. This initiative has helped in identifying the water quality issue in Pakistan. However, the reports are being released after year of sample collection and are too late.

Fifthly, the installation of new labs, up gradation of existing labs rehabilitation of water supply schemes are few of other initiatives taken by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Pakistan was host to second SACOSAN conference in Islamabad after participating in the first one at Dacca. This helped in highlighting the issue of sanitation. It is a tragic reality that less attention is being paid in improving the sanitary conditions in the country. The ground reality is that there is hardly any drop of domestic waste being treated before dumping into fresh water (rivers and canals) or used for irrigating vegetable farms in perri urban area. This sector is in the domain of ministry of environment, Pak-EPA and an act to control these effluents and national standards are in place. National sanitation policy is also in place.

Water treatment technology is a must for any country if health conditions are to be improved unto the optimal level. The standards for treatment in the developed world are very stringent but the follow up of the same in the developing countries seems to be a far cry because of the limited financial resources. But as has been discussed earlier that ignoring to improve the health safety standards can be fatal. The solution in such a situation would be to allocate the funds while keeping an eye on the vulnerability of the issues. We in Pakistan may be looking for some viable solutions that we can afford as compromise to this issue will amount to putting the interest of the masses at risk.