Access to affordable and safe drinking water has become increasingly difficult as 44 percent of the country’s population is deprived of it. Situation in the rural areas is bleaker, as 90 percent of its residents do not get to drink safe water.
According to a report by the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), around 200,000 children in Pakistan die every year from diarrhea alone, an indication of the problem’s gravity.
Just a few decades back, Pakistan was a water rich country. However, Pakistan is now among the 17 countries facing water shortage, a recent World Bank Report mentioned. In addition, the estimated level of water available was likely to decline considerably in the foreseeable future.
PCRWR spokesperson Lubna Naheed said the decline in water quantity had led to deterioration in its quality due to the municipal, industrial and agricultural wastes. She said majority of Pakistan’s population was using groundwater for drinking. Contamination of this source due to unplanned urbanisation and industrialisation was a major problem.
She further said overexploitation of natural resources and discharge of hazardous wastes into water bodies without proper treatment was also among the major concerns. Hand pump is the main source of ground water in the rural areas of Pakistan. Hand and motor pumps together provide 61 percent of the households with drinking water, rising to 70 percent in rural areas.
A vast majority of the rural population either pipes water or takes it from a hand pump. A meager seven percent of the rural population depends on dug wells or on rivers, canals and streams.
According to official data, Punjab has the best rural water supply amongst all provinces. Situation in Sindh is appalling as 24 percent of the rural population depends on polluted sources, while the situation has further deteriorated over the period. Rural water supply situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan is also concerning as 46 and 72 percent of their rural population depends on water from dug shell, river, canal or stream.