President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF) Mian Zahid Hussain has demanded allocation of additional funds in the fiscal budget to overcome water scarcity. "Government should improve water availability in urban and rural areas using all available means including serious steps to conserve water by discouraging irresponsible use," he urged.
PBIF president said that that access to potable drinking water is a basic right, but, according to an estimate, around 16 million people lack access to it due to water scarcity and irresponsible usage. He said that some elements have established dozens of illegal units in every city to provide contaminated bottled water in the name of clean water while there is no check on them. He said these elements were minting money by this business. "Majority of people cannot buy clean water due to financial problems hence they have to consume dirty water that poses serious threat to their health, he said, adding that dependence on ground water had touched dangerous proportions with 60 percent people in urban areas and 70% in rural areas depend on it that caused fast depletion of this resource.
Mian Zahid said that water supply system is dysfunctional in many cities which compelled people to extract ground water while there is no law regarding this unchecked practice. "Some cities have filtration plants that are managed by the government departments but the majority of such plants are out of order," he said, adding that filtration plants should be established in all the cities and towns to save lives of the people.