Entire procedure is useless if the river water is continually contaminated
FAISALABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has announced a scheme named ‘Saaf Pani’ to supply clean drinking water to far flung areas of the province. The details of the implementation of the scheme have not been disclosed yet. However, purifying the water resources is an extensive procedure as the water sources, which are primarily rivers in the province, are polluted through various sources and are rather used as waste discarding dumps by the industrial units and factories around. Now not only has most of the water supply become undrinkable, marine life has been nearly destroyed too with reports of fish from the Rawal lake being unfit for human consumption.
The entire procedure is useless if the river water is continually contaminated with toxic chemicals and human-borne pollution. According to a research, 1.2 million deaths in Pakistan are caused due to water-borne diseases every year, whereas infants and children below the age of five are the most affected segment hit by diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera. Therefore a more efficient approach would be to restrict industries from dumping waste in rivers and lakes, as with rapid climate change many of the previously flowing streams and river tributaries have dried up. Conservation and preservation of the existing ones has become even more important.
Samra Liaquat
Published in The Express Tribune, October 22nd, 2017.
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