World-wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) and Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited (CCBPL) have partnered together to improve access to clean drinking water in marginal communities suffering from acute shortage of clean water.
WWF-P Director General Hammad Naqi Khan and CCBPL Director PAC Zafar Abbas Jafri inked the MoU under which both organisations agreed to work together to improve access to clean drinking water.
During this partnership, CCBPL and WWF-P will install 15 filtration plants over the course of two years with intensive community outreach and mobilisation opportunities. This initiative will, thus be carried out in target areas selected on the basis of clean water shortage, community needs and its willing participation.
WWF-P will identify sites and communities for the installation and provision of these plants. The project will result in the development of sustainable models for provision of water that is most suited to the local context with extensive monitoring and evaluation at project sties.
While addressing the signing ceremony, WWF-P Director General Hammad Naqi Khan said, "Pakistan is facing a looming crisis in water management, which has direct linkages to the social, economic and environmental well being of the country. It is about time that businesses and the government work side by side to arrest the effects through effective water stewardship."
Expressing his views about the initiative, CCBPL Director PAC Zafar Abbas Jafri said, "According to recent UN reports, water scarcity is going to be a major issue in the coming years, and so we have to educate the masses and introduce initiatives to make use of the water currently available. CCBPL is at the forefront in this fight against water scarcity especially in this partnership with WWF-P."
Meanwhile, the initiative targets research on water quality issues: installation of localised solutions i.e. water treatment plants, reverse osmosis (RO), ultra-filtration (UF), ozonator and sand filters in less privileged communities. The communities will be selected in accordance with their water situation, needs and participation in solving the issue. In addition, the capacity of target communities with a particular focus on women's participation will be increased to ensure sustained operation and maintenance of installed drinking water infrastructure. This understanding will remain valid till the end of 2016 and is expected to make an effective contribution in improving the access to clean drinking water for low lying areas. Starting with Lahore, the initiative will be expanded to other regions.
Some of the major health issues and diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery and hepatitis, are also linked to waterborne diseases, as 30 percent of diseases and 40 percent of deaths are associated with contaminated drinking water. Approximately 250,000 children die each year due to contaminated water.
It is also estimated that Pakistan's water availability in 2025 will be 104 million acre-feet (MAF), whereas demand will be 135 MAF and a shortfall of 31 MAF.
In order to cope with these issues, WWF-P launched the Water Stewardship in Pakistan (WSP) project in January 2013 with an aim to promote sustainable consumption and production (SCP) practices in the country by facilitating and supporting a shift towards better water management in water-intensive SMEs located in Lahore and its surrounding districts.
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