‘Only 36% Pakistanis get safe drinking water’

islamabad — Only 36 per cent of Pakistani population on average, including 41 per cent urban and 32 per cent rural, is getting safe drinking water in the country, a world Health Organisation report has revealed.

Results of the water quality monitoring efforts by the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) indicate that 69 to 85 per cent of collected samples of water were found to be contaminated.

The Ministry of Science and Technology has established 24 Water Quality Monitoring Laboratories all over the country to analyse quality of water of samples, an official of the ministry said.

He further said that due to the poor quality of drinking water a large number of citizens are forced to buy bottled water. As a consequence of this expanding market a mushroom growth of bottled water industry in the country has been witnessed during the last few years.

However, many of the mineral/ bottled water companies were found to be selling sub-standard water. To monitor and improve the quality of bottled water, the government of Pakistan through the Ministry of Science and Technology has designated the task to PCRWR for quarterly monitoring of bottled water brands and publicise the results.

According to the monitoring report for the quarter from July to September, 2017, 104 samples of bottled water brands were collected from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Peshawar, Multan, Lahore, Quetta, Bahawalpur, Tando Jam, Karachi and Muzaffarabad. Comparison of findings with permissible limits of Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has revealed that 9 brands (i.e. Clean Plus, NICE, Blue Ice, Pacific Pure, Rise Water, Al Shalal, Al Safia, GEM Water and Do Aab Water) were unsafe due to chemical and microbiological contaminations. Out of those unsafe brands, four brands (i.e. Clean Plus, NICE, Blue Ice and Pacific Pure) have comparatively high levels of Arsenic ranging from 14-27ppb than the PSQCA permissible standard for arsenic (10ppb). —