Pakistan is confronting serious challenges of depleting water resources and water scarcity issue is becoming worse with each passing day, however with collective efforts water crisis could be averted. This was stated by Javaid Ali Khan Director General Environment while addressing a national workshop to celebrate 'World Water Day' organised by Ministry of Environment in collaboration with Unicef, UN Habitat, PIEDAR, Water Aid and WASH here on Tuesday.
"Children are the principal victims of neglect of water quality however; collective efforts have to be made to meet this core issue", said DG adding that water availability per capita has decreased at an alarming rate and the challenge further aggravated by groundwater pollution and depletion, rapid urbanisation and growth of urban slums and squatter settlements.
He further said that the scale and pace of urbanisation also poses a big challenge for the provision of safe drinking water. Javaid Ali Khan further said that most water supply, whether protected and treated at source or not, gets contaminated again in transmission or in handling at home or in the water tanks and containers, resulting in diarrhea and many other deceases.
DG further said that this year the theme for World Water Day is "Water and Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge" that give direction to move for the betterment of the people. The government has decided to observe World Water Day as a demonstration of Children-Led initiatives for water purification at point of use.
Director Environment Irfan Tariq said that government was aware of the water issue in the country. Good practices should be adopted to consume the water according to the need. Children from different educational institutions, officials of Ministry of Environment and related organisations, media and general public participated in the workshop.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.