Safe drinking water is the basic need of human being but it is not in access of each and every person particularly in developing countries where is an acute problem. This article defines the state of the Pakistan's water supply and what we can do to improve it. It defines sources, treatment, and distribution of drinking water.
Safe drinking water supply in Pakistan is characterised by few achievements and various challenges as water supply is often inappropriate in Pakistan. The global water shortage of affordable and safe drinking water is manifested in Pakistan with an estimated 44 percent of the population without access to safe drinking water.
In rural areas, up to 90 percent of the population may lack such access. As one indication of the magnitude of the problem, it is estimated that 200,000 children in Pakistan die every year due to diarrheal diseases alone. 35-41 % of all diseases in Pakistan are due to conditions arising from the case of contaminated drinking water.
Intermittent water supply is common in urban areas and in major cities continuity rates of water supply ranges in average is 1-10 hrs excluding timing faults in supply. Consequently, on-site storage mechanisms are in common practice such as ground or roof tanks, or lorry tankers or shallow wells and rivers in all over Pakistan.
Govt. of Pakistan however is doing untiring efforts in this regards and in September 2009 the government approved the National Drinking Water Policy that aims at providing safe drinking water to the entire population by 2025, including the poor and vulnerable at an affordable cost.
Karachi is a thickly populated big metropolitan city where its problems are also big and hard to solve. Today's main problem of Karachi is the safe and secure water supply which is totally failed due to several reasons. A survey was conducted by PCSIR during 2010, found that about 55% of urban populations had access to piped water supply.
Furthermore supply of water into homes through pipes is not concealed that causes increased bacterial load and chemical contamination of water .It reduces access to safe water up to 25% portion of the population. The Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KW&SB) is a service based consumer oriented organisation responsible for production, transmission and distribution of potable water to the citizen of Karachi.
Like many developing countries water supply is normally managed by the utilities and is conventionally facilitated through underground piped system but the piped water supply is not sufficient to fulfil the need of Urban Pakistan .In Karachi the therefore the population has resorted to the usage of alternative modes of supply . These modes include boring, water tankers, vending through donkey carts, suction pumps or informal drawing from water mains. These alternative modes are used in different arrangements which extend service to consumers through ways and means not formally integrated in the conventional procedures.
The above mentioned resources of water generally generate a number of health problems due to contamination of tap water .PCSIR is engaged in testing and monitoring of safe drinking water all over Pakistan. Daily a number of samples are tested to meet the specification of WHO guideline for drinking waters particularly KLC is totally involved in this practice being located in a mega city. While practicing analysis of 10-15 samples of water a day water samples just to know that their degree of purification is matching with WHO standard. It has been noticed that almost 50-60% samples do not meet WHO standard of drinking water. However microbiologically almost 30-40% samples do not found to be fit for human consumption. These samples are usually from boring, underground wells and self implemented RO plant.
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Composition Water composition WHO guidelines
in Karachi - mg/L mg/L
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pH 7.0-8.1 6.5-8.5
Calcium 30-45 -
Magnesium 18-27 200
Sodium 38-48 -
Potassium 6-10 -
Chloride 50-80 250
Sulphate 42-65 250
TDS 310-430 1000
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Microbiological
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facts
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HPC Zero - 1.8x104 cfu/ml 100cfu/ml
Total Coliforms Zero - 1.8x104 Zero/dl Zero/dl
Faecal Coliforms Zero - 1.8x104 Zero/dl Zero/dl
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Water supplied in urban areas is already treated by concerned civic authority but samples from several locations are found contaminated due to lack of maintenance of pipelines and due to use of suction pumps in non supply hours which caused leakage of sewerage effluents as sewerage line are running parallel to water supply lines.
There are a number of clients who bring samples for water testing from different resources such as boring water usually contains higher TDS ( Total dissolved Solids) and having bacteria load as well depending upon location where boring has been done .This water needs a little treatment to make it drinkable.
This treatment varies as per requirements and PCSIR-KLC is providing treatment services as well not only for safe disposal of industrial wastewater but also to make foe domestic purpose .As polluted water isn't just dirty-it's deadly as per WHO report more than 1.8 million people die every year of diarrheal diseases like cholera and millions of others are seriously sickened by a host of water borne ailments-many of which are easily preventable.
Drinking Water crisis in Pakistan propagate the culture of Bottled Water but it is limited up to elite class. To make it more accessible, prices of Bottled Water should be affordable by Pakistani public and Govt. should encourage it by giving some subsidy in this business but with the restriction of standard and strict monitoring.
Access to improved drinking water supply is not only a basic need and prerequisite for a healthy life in Pakistan but also our basic right.. If we pay attention towards proper household connection, public standpipe, protected dug well, borehole, protected spring, and rainwater collection, then water supply may be improved in Pakistan .One of the cheapest way for safe drinking water is bio-sand filters and concerned research organisation in Pakistan can propagate these filters like Mussffa has been introduced by PCSIR which based on treated sand bags for decontamination of water.
-- Pictorial view of Intermittent water resources in Pakistan
-- https://www.voice.pk/wp-content/uploads/clean-water.jpg
-- Water supply by tanker https://www.flickr.com/photos/unicefcanada/4864144276/
-- Biosand Filter https://www.hdfcanada.org/ongoing.html
-- http:/www.photographersdirect.com/buyers/stockphoto.asp?imageid=2223295