Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) on Monday revealed that 79 percent of the water samples, collected from Punjab’s rural areas, were found unsafe as they did not meet the Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority’s (PSQCA) criteria for healthy drinking water.
According to sources in PCRWR, water quality was recently monitored in rural areas of 12 districts in Punjab. This monitoring programme was done in 49 tehsils, 1227 union councils and 2090 villages. 10,440 water samples were collected and evaluated by conducting field and laboratory analysis.
A break up shows that 89 percent, 93 percent, 90 percent, 75 percent, 84 percent, 79 percent, 69 percent, 94 percent, 83 percent, 88 percent, 65 percent and 55 percent of the water samples were found unsafe in Attock, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Kasur, Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Sheikhupura and Sialkot respectively.
Important water quality parameters like bacteriological contaminations, turbidity, dissolved solid, nitrate, fluoride and arsenic were detected in the water samples. Furthermore, a significant 93 percent of the water samples were found unsafe in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). According to official figures, 99 percent, 80 percent, 93 percent and 97 percent of the water samples were sub-standard in Abbottabad, Mardan, Mingora and Peshawar respectively. The PCRWR report further disclosed that 72 percent of the water samples in rural areas of Sindh were found unsafe. Furthermore, 82 percent, 48 percent and 95 percent of the water samples were sub-standard in Hyderabad, Sukkur and Karachi respectively.
Balochistan reveals a bleaker picture as out of the 1465 water samples collected, a massive 99.7 percent were detected unhealthy.
Safe water a rarity in Punjab’s rural areas, says research council
