UNICEF to help set up water quality monitoring lab

United Nations International Children's Fund will set up laboratories with the latest equipment

PESHAWAR: To cope with natural as well as manmade disasters, the global children’s body has accepted a proposal from the provincial government to establish mobile water quality testing facilities in the province.

As a result, the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) will set up laboratories with the latest equipment and power back-up systems.

These laboratories would have the capacity to test for 29 different types of physical and chemical parameters.

It will be a joint effort where the vehicle will be provided by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Public Health Engineering Department (PHED). The technical and financial support for building the lab-specific canopy, procurement and installation of testing equipment will be supported by the UNICEF.

The lab, officials hoped, will provide quick and efficient means of testing water quality in the province without being bound to collect samples at specific times.

Officials privy to the development added that the labs will have power generation and storage systems built into them so that they can operate without having their power supply interrupted.

PHED is one of the key government departments mandated to ensuring access to clean drinking water in the province. Water Quality surveillance and validation of its quality for drinking and personal hygiene is one of the key obligations of PHED.

UNICEF Chief Field Office Charles Nzuki, UNICEF Pakistan WASH Chief Kitka Goyal, K-P PHED Secretary Nazim Uddin and K-P North Chief Engineer Bahramaned Khan were present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2018.