KARACHI – While countries around globe will be focusing on urban water management on World Water Day that is being observed today, Sindh’s rural areas will still be reeling from the affects of floods of 2010 that washed away most water and sanitation systems. Ninety percent of the water supply schemes in nine districts of Sindh as well as sanitation facilities were completely washed away during the 2010 floods, disclosed the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) in a recently-published report.
But despite the passage of seven months since the floods, neither the federal and provincial governments nor international and local NGOs have started reconstructing water and sanitation infrastructure in Sindh.
Pakistan claims in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that 89 percent of the rural population have access to improved drinking water, but Arain disputed the veracity of these claims.
“We took water samples from 19 out of 23 districts, and after a detailed study, we found that all samples had some biological contamination or that the level of total dissolved salts and turbidity was higher and the colour of the water changed. This meant that water in 19 districts is unfit for human consumption,” he said. The PCRWR report further states that the water supply schemes in major portions of Larkana, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Dadu, Jamshoro, Badin, Thatta and Kashmore-Kandhkot districts have completely been destroyed.
The report adds that 75 percent of the water supply schemes in the remaining districts of the province were built in the early 1980s. Many are now outdated, or that ponds have either been filled with silt or have vanished altogether. “Some districts – such as Tharparkar, Umerkot and a portion of Sanghar and Khairpur – have fluoride contamination in underground water. Others are suffering from arsenic contamination, and many have outdated water supply schemes,” Dr Murtaza Arain of PCRWR told Pakistan Today.
As per the Sindh government’s data, around 3 million people who migrated from their native places due to the floods have still lodged at flood relief camps and have no access to potable water or sanitation. Although Pakistan claims in the MGDs that 72 percent of the urban population and 29 percent of the rural population have access to sanitation facilities, the government has yet to ascertain the actual position in the wake of the floods.
Another report, compiled by the Ideal Rural Development Programme (IRDP), states that almost all freshwater sources of Sindh, including River Indus and its off canals, watercourses and freshwater lakes, have been contaminated with industrial effluents as well as dumping of domestic and even solid waste. The World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) states that in developing countries, 70 percent of industrial wastes are dumped untreated into waters where they pollute the usable water supply. Currently, about 70 percent of the world’s fresh water is used for irrigation, 22 percent for industry and only eight percent for domestic use.
The UNICEF points out that over 884 million people worldwide do not have access to safe water, while 2.6 billion have little access to adequate sanitation in a growing world population of over six billion people.
In terms of international commitments, Pakistan voted in favour of the resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in July 2010 regarding turning access to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation into a human right. Several other commitments were made with international and regional forums regarding access of drinking water and sanitation. In practice, however, Pakistan’s deeds do not match her pledges.
At the South Asian level, Pakistan is part of the South Asia Conference on Sanitation, the only political platform in the region that discusses and promotes sanitation and hygiene facilities. Pakistan also promised in November 2008, during the third SACOSAN held in Delhi, the inclusion in its constitution of access to sanitation and safe drinking water as a basic human right. With no progress in this regard, Pakistan is expected to make more empty promises in the fourth SACOSAN to be held in Colombo from April 4 to 8, where the topic of sanitation will come under focus.
