ISLAMABAD – Waterborne diseases are on the rise over the years and clean drinking water is scarce, even though the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has claimed that it is providing clean water to the residents of the capital.
Water, which is then to be treated and delivered through a system of pipelines and reservoirs to the residents, is obtained from dams, head-works and tube wells. “Water, supposedly drinkable, is being polluted at three different levels, surface contamination, contamination in the distribution system and contamination at the user’s end,” a source inside CDA asking not to be named told Pakistan Today.
Surface contamination is caused by the disposal of untreated municipal, sewage, hospital, laundry chemicals and industrial waste in the streams, the official said, adding that the distribution system is contaminated because of old and leaking pipelines. The contamination at the user’s end is the most dangerous, he said, adding that it is caused by unclean and unprotected underground and overhead storage tanks.
Water is stored in these tanks for long durations without effective chlorination because of which it gets contaminated, he said, adding that users seldom clean their tanks whereas they are required to do so regularly. Most of the tube wells supplying water to Islamabad are located close to polluted streams the water from which seeps into the tube wells, polluting their water also, the official said.
“We have cleaned two polluted streams in sector E-7 and we have also repaired broken sewage lines,” Sajjad Ali Shah, Deputy Director General Environment at CDA told Pakistan Today. “My two-year-old daughter was seriously ill because we used CDA supplied drinking water. I had to take her to the hospital and she was diagnosed with diarrhea,” Arshad Hussain, a resident of sector G-6/1, said while talking to Pakistan Today, adding that “we now use bottled water from the market.”
“We cannot afford mineral water,” he said, “and we have nobody to complain to since the government itself is providing polluted water to us.”
