Clean Drinking Water: ‘Govt must install filtration plants’

It was stressed that there was a need for ensuring the quality of drinking water at these plants.

BAHAWALPUR: The government should provide water in the Sutlej River and fulfill the promise of installing water filtration plants at the union council level. These demands were made at a seminar on Right to Clean Drinking Water, organised by the Awaz Foundation Pakistan at a hotel here on Monday. The speakers said groundwater in several areas of Bahawalpur district was not fit for drinking. They said there were only 24 filtration plants for four million people in the Bahawalpur district. The speakers at the seminar demanded that the government fulfill its promise of installing water filtration plants at the union council level. They stressed that there was also a need for ensuring the quality of drinking water at these plants. The speakers said the tehsil municipal administrations must ensure the timely replacement of filters and chemicals so that the health of the communities is protected. They said the poor groundwater in Bahawalpur was due to lack of water in Sutlej River. They demanded that the government take different initiatives to restore flow in the Sutlej River on a priority basis.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2013.