ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Wednesday while expressing serious concern over the quality of drinking water being sold as “mineral water” countrywide directed the government to take serious action against those selling substandard drinking water.
The Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology which held its meeting here under the chairmanship of Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan said that the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) has totally failed to check the situation.
Briefing the panel on the subject officials of the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources told the committee that they had sealed five companies and 18 mineral water selling points in 2020 for violating safety rules.
Many people setup illegal water plants at their homes and were supplying water to households in major Pakistani cities, they said.
The officials of the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) while briefing the committee on mineral water-related issues said that the Authority collected water samples from 23 companies and found to be substandard of which units of five companies and selling points of 18 companies have been shut down.
The chairman committee said that the PCRWR did not even have the authority to fine people let aside sending them to jails.
He called on the government to look into the matter.
“If the government enforces set rules and regulations, it will greatly help improve the quality of life in the country as substandard water was one of the main causes in spreading communicable diseases and it will also help minimise health expenditures.”
Speaking during the meeting, Senator Noman Wazir said this ministry has failed to implement the committee’s 227 directives, while the departments of the ministry have become salary paying centers.
The attitude of the bureaucracy needs to be changed, he stressed.
Sabir Shah, another member of the committee, while agreeing with the chairman Committee said that unhygienic water spreads several diseases, including Hepatitis B and C.
The committee also expressed concerns over delay in completion of science and technology-related projects including establishment of university at the Prime Minister’s House.
The officials of the ministry conveyed that it will take six years to set up a university in the Prime Minister’s House, which will have three Centers of Excellence.
The feasibility study of the university was being conducted at the Prime Minister’s House with an allocated amount of Rs390 million and PC-I will be ready within a year.
The chairman of the committee expressed concern over not doing any practical work regarding the establishment of the university and said that the COVID-19 should not have made a difference at work.
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry while briefing the panel on the subject that progress on various projects has been slowed down owing to COVID-19 situation, adding that the government is to announce the biggest scholarship programme of Pakistan’s history of volume Rs13 billion with according scholarship from matriculation to PhD.
Chaudhary said that Rs10,000 per month will be awarded to top 10 students of each district of the country, while at the higher secondary level the scholarship will be Rs12,000 per month to the first 10 toppers of each district.
“After 15 years we have completed the boards of various agencies of the ministry,” he added.
In addition, he further said that dialysis machines will soon be manufactured in the country.
Chaudhry said that Pakistan will start making health devices from this year in the country.
“Bringing an electronic vehicle is a great achievement for us,” he added.
The budget of Science and Technology sector has been increased up to Rs16 billion to transform this sector which was neglected in the past.
The ministry developed civil-military interface for the first time in the history for creating coordination and exchanging research-related expertise.
The chairman said the projects, after allocation of budget, were supposed to be completed in time, responding to which, the federal minister said that the ministry cannot run such projects alone without the help of the private sector.
The officials conveyed that the PSQCA conduct mobile sampling along with Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources.
The authority conducted water sampling in seven major cities of the country and took action; however, the companies change their names and resume operations again whenever action is taken against them.
The chairman of the committee said that if they have not been able to check quality and standard of water, what they will do with the remaining 61 items, he questioned.
Senator Mushtaq Ahmad expressed annoyance over postponement of the inquiry into corruption cases in the PSQCA, and said the instructions of the committee were not being taken seriously by the authority.
Responding to this, the DG PSQCA told the committee that three officers have been suspended in this regard.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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