Contaminated water found in 21 cities

National Water Quality Monitoring Programme, which was launched in 2001 with the objective of establishing a permanent water-quality monitoring network and to observe changes in surface and ground water quality in various Pakistan's cities.
The cities including Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad are failed to achieve its target of supplying potable water and found being supplied contaminated water, which cause fatal diseases like gastro-enteritis.
This was disclosed by an official source on condition of anonymity here on Thursday. "People living in 21 cities of Pakistan are being provided with polluted water that is highly lethal for human health," source said.
He said that all the major cities such as, Multan, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sukkur, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad and Rawalpindi were extremely affected, but the relevant officials were least bothered to take any remedial steps for addressing the problem to save human lives.
The official said that it had also been proven by the recently held survey that polluted water being supplied to the citizens. The report revealed that dangerous pollutants had been found in the water that cause gastro entritis, Hepatitis. reported from different parts of the country.
Another official admitted that polluted water was being supplied to some cities, adding he said, however, the government was doing a lot it could to solve the problem.
Although all the desired results could not be achieved during the last six years, the monitoring result lead to some remedial measures towards improving the quality and sustainable use of water resources, he added.
A health expert, who requested not to be named, disclosed that a survey was conducted in 11 cities of Punjab, three of Sindh, four of Balochistan and three of NWFP, adding six main rivers along with dams and reservoirs, where almost 50 percent of water samples in all cities being found bacterially contaminated and unfit for human consumption.
He said that survey also revealed that decontamination facilities were absent in almost all the cities. Moreover, he said arsenic and lead were found in considerable quantities in the collected water samples.