Schoolkids drink unsafe water
A child gulps down water as she braves the fury of the heatwave currently gripping the province. Photo: zahoor ahmed/Express
A large number of public sector schools in the province have failed to provide safe drinking water to the students, exposing them to health risks.
Especially the students of schools located in the industrial areas of the metropolis are exposed to water contaminated with arsenic and other chemicals because of lack of arrangements for purification and testing.
According to a doctor, parents of a number of students from schools operating in the Misiri Shah, Badami Bagh, Rang Mahal, Kot Lakhpat, Daroghawala, Township, Sanda, Shahdara and Kareem Park areas frequently complain that their children fall sick because of drinking contaminated water. He said unfiltered water might cause cholera, typhoid, gastroenteritis, dysentery and other serious diseases.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, a leader of the Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) stressed the need for installing water filtration plants in all schools and testing the water being used by the students.
The Lahore High Court recently took notice of the matter and ordered the Punjab education secretary to explain the situation regarding exposure of children to contaminated in the government schools.
The court was informed that the students of around 200 public sector schools in the city were being forced to drink water that was unsafe for their health. There are 1,120 government schools in the Lahore district.
The Punjab Teachers Union representative claimed that most of the schools lacked adequate arrangements to ensure the availability of clean drinking water. He said chemical and arsenic contamination of the water was the most serious issue.
"The issue is very serious and it is a good development that the Lahore High Court has taken notice of it, but it is a fact that the students in majority of the private schools also drink contaminated water. The situation in the public sector colleges is also not different because of lack of functional filtration plants,” a senior officer of the Punjab School Education Department said.
He said lack of regular maintenance of the water pipelines also posed a risk to the health of the students.
He said complaints of lack of clean drinking water in schools had also been received from Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Kasur and Sheikhupura districts but the department was unable to do much in this regard because of shortage of funds.
Punjab Teachers Union secretary general Rana Liaqat Ali the supply of contaminated water was the most serious issue and the young children were the most vulnerable to water-borne diseases.
“Although we have not had any survey in the past to check and analyse the quality of water, but only a few of the 1,120 schools in Lahore provide their students clean drinking water. A similar situation is being observed in the other flourishing industrial districts,” he added.
The leader of the teachers union said the number of complaints of waterborne diseases are higher among school students in Misri Shah, Shad Bagh and other industrial areas, where there is a fear of arsenic contamination.
He said then union had installed filtration plants in six schools with the cooperation of UNiCEF, but only the government could effectively address the problem.
The head of the Punjab University Integrated Mountain Research Department, Dr Munawer Sabir, said environment pollution, especially water pollution, had reached a dangerous level in Lahore and the citizens would be shocked if they checked the quality of drinking water, not only in schools but also in their homes.
He said city had experienced deadly outbreaks of gastroenteritis in the past. He said the issue of contaminated drinking water would jeapardise the health of the future generations.
Dr Sabir said an international report had estimated that every third citizen Pakistani citizen drank unclean water but the situation in Lahore was more dangerous with almost half of the population exposed to the related diseases.
He said drinking water contaminated with arsenic caused skin, bladder, liver and kidney diseases.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 19th, 2023.