It is time for the govt to stay focused on not just building dams but on providing secure and clean water as well
RAWALPINDI: Addressing the water crisis in Pakistan should be one of the top-most priorities of the government. There are nine companies in Pakistan that are providing ground water in the name of mineral water. They are also allegedly not paying the state in return for digging wells to extract water.
The ground water is depleting by the day. No implementable solutions to the water shortage issue have been put into effect by local government authorities. In many zones of Rawalpindi, there is no fixed time for water supply. Sometimes water is not supplied at all, consecutively for four to five days, while at other times the supply is scheduled for only a few hours. As a result, people are consuming bottled mineral water due to the lack of a better alternative as ground water is also found to be contaminated. From this chaos, the tanker mafia also gets a chance to peel off the poor with high tanker prices. However, if these bottled water companies are also using the same water and deceiving their customers, then where should one go?
It is time for the government to stay focused on not just building dams but on providing secure and clean water as well. Proper mechanisms must be introduced to hold the companies found indulging in fraudulent practices accountable.
Hammad
Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2019.
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