33 percent water supply schemes non-functional due to paucity of funds

Survey conducted by Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) on Tuesday revealed that 33% water supply schemes are non-functional due to insufficient funds. According to official data available, out of 12,000 water supply schemes to be completed up to 2010, Under the project (Provision of Safe Drinking water) 8,200 schemes have been completed.
The other reasons for which water supply scheme are not fully functional are repair or maintenance problems, low pressure in the system and also due to drying of the water source. When contacted, officials in PCRWR said only 20% schemes have the availability of water treatment facility.
Giving further details, they said water quality is unsafe for drinking in overall 72% analysed water samples (83% bacteriological contamination) at the water source and 86% bacteriological contamination at the user end. When contacted, spokesperson PCRWR confirmed that 33% water supply schemes are not operative, adding maintenance of these schemes do not require much funding.
The spokesperson further said that for provision of safe drinking water to the public, development and installation of 24 low cost water conditioning at different places in the country, is in progress. The results of various investigations and surveys by several agencies have indicated that water pollution has become a serious problem in the country and many health problems are directly or indirectly related to water quality.
According to official data, water quality monitoring studies have revealed the presence of four major water quality tribulations which is bacteriological contamination (27-100%), arsenic (0-100%, nitrate (0-54%) and fluoride (0-55%) in water resources of the country. Commenting over the situation, spokesperson PCRWR said, "To tackle the unwanted situation created by poor water quality, PCRWR has initiated public awareness campaign through capacity building programmes in all parts of the country".