LAHORE: As many as 116 state-of-the-art water filtration plants have been installed in villages of Lodhran, Hasilpur, Dunyapur, Khanpur and Minchanabad tehsils in Bahawalpur region under Punjab Saaf Pani Company-South (PSPC-South), which is providing safe drinking water to more than 350,000 local residents in the above-mentioned areas.
These water filtration plants have been installed by PSPC-South at easy-to-access places in villages located in the above-mentioned tehsils for the benefit of the local communities.
As revealed in various survey reports, the underground water in these tehsils had become contaminated and contained multiple pollutants, which badly affected the health of locals. They had fallen victim to various water-borne diseases which were taking a toll on locals due to the increase in their health-related expenditures.
In order to increase safe drinking water consumption and create awareness about the hazards regarding intake of contaminated water among local residents, PSPC-South had launched a robust awareness campaign aimed at inclining locals to use filtered water for consumption and cooking purposes.
Besides the engagement of PSPC-South’s community mobilisation staff, lady health workers and health nutrition supervisors in the tehsils have been taken onboard through District Health and Education Departments to promote hygiene practices and consumption of filtered water among local villagers.
Similarly, Radio Pakistan network (FM-101 and Medium Wave Bahawalpur and Multan) in Bahawalpur region were also being used to send across awareness messages among the communities in the target tehsils.
The existing water quality was found unfit for human consumption in majority regions falling in the rural areas of Punjab. Those who remained affected by the lack of safe drinking water were often the most vulnerable groups, including women, children and extremely poor people living in rural/remote/marginalised communities of the province.
Realising the gravity of situation, the Punjab government had launched Safe Drinking Water Programme not only to protect water quality, but also to make it available to those who lacked access to water in the rural areas.
According to the vision of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the province was being presented as a development model to be emulated by other provinces, and this safe drinking water programme was a part of the CM’s vision.
This programme would improve the health of rural population and drastically cut down dependency on the health budget after improving their lifestyle.
The programme would cover villages and settlements in 137 tehsils to provide clean water to over 56 million population in the province.
