National drinking water and national sanitation policies are being formulated by the ministry of environment in consultation with all stakeholders. Federal Minister for Environment, Major Tahir Iqbal (Retd) stated this while chairing a meeting held here on Friday to formulate these policies.
The minister said working papers have already been prepared by the NCCWS. He said that the ministry has been declared as focal ministry for adopting an integrated approach to provide safe drinking water and it has already developed "Clean Drinking Water Project" under which 6000 filtration plants will be installed all over the country.
Tahir Iqbal said that a National Policy will not only help in providing guidelines and standards for safe drinking water supply and management but also help in allocation of necessary financial resources at national, provincial and local government's levels to develop and maintain properly required infrastructure and systems.
He said that one third population of the country has no access to drinking water and proper sanitation facilities which not only leads to spread of epidemics but also posses enormous challenge in meeting the millennium development goals.
Tahir Iqbal maintained that ministry of environment is making efforts to find solution for these problems and Pakistan Environment Protection Agency has signed Annual Work Plan-2005 with Unicef, with an over all objective of providing safe drinking water to the citizens and improve sanitation coverage in the country.
Unicef deputy representative in Pakistan, Ronald Van Dijk while speaking at the occasion ensured full co-operation from water and sanitation programme team of the Unicef to the Government of Pakistan's efforts in this regard.
Secretary Environment, Rukhsana Jabbar Memon said that need for drinking water and sanitation policy was being felt again and the ministry would ascertain that consolidated and well-focused policies would be formulated within the stipulated time.