PTI issues fact-sheet 82 percent people do not have access to clean drinking water

A fact-sheet released by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party claims 82 percent of Pakistanis do not have access to clean drinking water and around 1.1 million people, including 250,000 children, die because of unsafe drinking water every year in the country. Party Organiser Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar on Thursday said the fact-sheet pointed to the Punjab's 30-percent population suffering from hepatitis B and C and other life-claiming diseases.
He also said around 75 percent of potable water in Islamabad was contaminated while 24 percent of the population of Lahore was drinking arsenic-contaminated water. "Media reports suggest that unsafe drinking water causes 250,000 children's deaths every year. Up to 87 percent of water in Rawalpindi is contaminated. The Water Research Council says some 1.1 million people die because of drinking unsafe water every year and hepatitis and cancer are also being caused by unsafe potable water," he added.
About the polluted water in several cities, he claimed the polluted water level was 85 percent in Attock, 50 percent in Bahawalpur, 45 in Faisalabad, 68 in Gujranwala, 78 in Gujrat and Kasur, 24 in Lahore, 48 in Multan, 73 in Rawalpindi, 77 in Sargodha, 44 in Sheikhupura and 45 in Sialkot. He then claimed arsenic was also found in drinking water in Lahore, Multan, Sargodha, Kasur and Bahawalpur. "In Lahore, a project of installing 200 filtration plants was launched in 2002 but the incapable rulers have failed to implement this project till now. Chlorination of over 300 tube wells out of the total 500 in the provincial capital is not done by the Water and Sanitation Agency," he added.