Access to tap water is very low in rural areas – 13 per cent — as compared to 43 per cent in urban areas of the Punjab and quality of drinking water remains substandard as the major sources are hand pumps and turbines supplying contaminated or brackish water to local populations.
Comprising 137 tehsils in 36 districts, the Punjab province is the most populous of the five provinces of Pakistan, with an estimated population of over 110 million people.
Main drinking water source is groundwater in the province, which once was considered to be safe, but over the years it is increasingly found to be contaminated with bacteriological and chemical pollutants.
Punjab SaafPani Company-South (PSPC-South) and Punjab SaafPani Company-North (PSPC-North) have been established to plan and execute the program with the aim of providing safe drinking water in phases to over 62 million people in the rural areas of the Punjab province.
In areas of small scattered communities where water TDS is less than 1,000ppm, Ultra Filtration Plant may be installed.
These communities are mobilized to work with the company in acquiring land and running plants operations.
More than 10,000 SaafPani Centers will be constructed in these 55 tehsils and this will provide clean and safe drinking water to 40 million people of province.
In Round1 to Round 3, PSPC-South will launch safe drinking water supply program in six tehsils of Lodhran, Dera Ghazi Khan, ChakJhumra, Faisalabad, Dera Ghazi Khan Tribal Area and Rajanpur Tribal Area tehsils to serve 1,047 villages/settlements with an estimated population of 3.64 million.
During the current financial year (Round I and Round II), PSPC-North will launch safe drinking water supply program in seven tehsils of Layyah, Choubara, KrorLalEsan, Khanewal, Kabirwala, MianChannu and Jehanian where 5.28 million rural populations will get a sustained access to safe drinking water 1,537 villages and settlements.
This safe drinking water program is unique in the sense that it is for the first time in the history of Pakistan that such a gigantic step has been taken for ensuring provision of safe drinking water across the rural areas the province.

The US government development fund arm OPIC has committed $12.5 million loan for a project to deliver affordable clean drinking water to low and middle-income groups in India.
The loan will go to the Indian subsidiary of California-based WaterHealth International Inc — WaterHealth India Pvt Ltd — to install 900 decentralised plants to purify water on site and sell it at price three to four times lower than bottled water alternatives currently available in the market.
The $12.5 million (₹80 crore) loan from the Overseas Private Investment Arm (OPIC) will go to a project that will expand access to affordable clean drinking water to millions of low and middle-income people in India, OPIC said in a statement.
The clean water vending machines are to be installed at places like railway stations, bus stations, shopping malls, public and private institutions or any high footfall location where consumers are able to purchase purified water ranging in amounts from 300 ml to 5 litres.
Most consumers carry their own bottles and WaterHealth refills them but consumers may also purchase reusable bottles.
“This project offers an innovative approach to making safe water more available and affordable and illustrates how businesses can develop new solutions to long standing global challenges,” said Ray W Washburne, President and CEO, OPIC.
Health hazards Citing limited access to safe drinking water a major health and economic challenge in most parts of the world, OPIC said India alone is estimated to have 16.3 crore people who do not have access to safe water, a major cause of diarrhoeal illnesses that results in 500 deaths of children under the age of five each day.
In addition to this massive health cost, insufficient affordable water supplies pose a significant economic and overall quality of life cost, particularly for women, whose time spent gathering water often takes away from time spent on other household tasks or with family or earning income outside the home, it said.
“Built around the latest quality and operational monitoring technologies, this platform allows anyone the ability to sustainably and affordably provide safe drinking water to consumers in urban and rural areas and in weeks instead of years,” said Sanjay Bhatnagar, CEO of WaterHealth International.
OPIC’s loan to WaterHealth was committed under OPIC’s new 2X Global Women’s Initiative to mobilise $1 billion to invest in women and unlock the economic opportunity they represent.

Water scarcity is one of the world’s leading challenges affecting over 2.1 billion people worldwide, with approximately three in ten people across the globe lacking access to safe and readily available water at home.
Some of the partners include Binatone, Shalina, Volta River Authority, World Vision, Melcom Group of Companies and Poly Group.
Addressing a news conference to mark World Water Day in Accra, last week, Sunil Lalvani, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Project Maji Foundation, disclosed that the Foundation had opened its 9th site in Ghana while more than 15,000 Ghanaians had been provided with access to safe drinking water.
He said the Foundation was currently looking for partners and donors interested in supporting their initiatives in providing safe drinking water, adding that by 2025, one million rural communities in Ghana.
He said Project Maji, established in 2015, was becoming a leader in the water, hygiene and sanitation sector, using its solar powered water kiosk pumping system which can pump and serve 5,000 litres of water per day with minimal maintenance and physical effort.
Mr Lalvani said the water pumping technology was ideally suited for deployment in rural communities and designed to work reliably with almost no maintenance in the harshest of environments and minimal damage to the ecosystem.
He said the technology allowed the monitoring of all projects remotely directly from cell phones, which did not only mitigate costs, but also ensured that each site remained functional long after departure from the project site.
In his remarks, Nicole Malick, Development Director, Project Maji, explained that the operations of Project Maji was on the model of Build-Operate-Transfer and Sustain.
In addition, Mr Malick said, environmental, financial and community sustainability were integrated into all aspects of project execution.
On his part, Mr Attah Arhin, Project Co-ordinator, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Projects, World Vision Ghana, disclosed that World Vision had partnered Project Maji to provide safe water to schools and health centres in communities in the Ga West Municipality.

has been under a boil water advisory.
The reason isn’t due to lack of access to a water treatment plant or proper training to operate it — the community doesn’t bother to send water samples to the territorial government for sampling because residents believe their water is clean enough to drink straight from the lake.
According to the territorial government’s 2016 report on drinking water, Colville Lake sent in merely two per cent of its mandated quota for water sampling in 2016.
The government requires communities outside Yellowknife send in 48 samples per year.
The requirement for the territorial capital is 228 per year.
Many elders don’t like chlorinated water But Kochon said many of the community’s elders drink straight from the lake because they don’t like to drink chlorinated water.
Colville Lake’s water treatment plant opened in 2007.
Kochon said he believes the lake water is clean, and it’s evident when the community changes the filters at the plant each month.
‘We are not too worried about contamination’ According to territorial government engineer Justin Hazenberg, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs assists communities with the provision of clean drinking water and the Department of Health enforces regulations.
But when it comes to worrying about water contamination in the territory, Hazenberg says N.W.T.

New Delhi, Mar 26 The US government development fund arm OPIC has committed USD 12.5 million loan for a project to deliver affordable clean drinking water to low and middle-income groups in India.
The loan will go to the Indian subsidiary of California based WaterHealth International Inc — WaterHealth India Pvt Ltd — to install 900 decentralised plants to purify water on site and sell it at price three to four times lower than bottled water alternatives currently available in the market.
The USD 12.5 million (Rs 80 crore) loan from the Overseas Private Investment Arm (OPIC) will go to a project that will expand access to affordable clean drinking water to millions of low and middle-income people in India, OPIC said in a statement.
The clean water vending machines are to be installed at places like railway stations, bus stations, shopping malls, public and private institutions or any high footfall location where consumers are able to purchase purified water ranging in amounts from 300 ml to 5 litres.
Most consumers carry their own bottles and WaterHealth refills them but consumers may also purchase reusable bottles.
"This project offers an innovative approach to making safe water more available and affordable and illustrates how businesses can develop new solutions to long standing global challenges," said Ray W Washburne, OPIC President and CEO.
"By increasing access to clean water, the project will improve the health and quality of life for millions of Indians, particularly women who typically have the primary responsibility for obtaining and managing the household water supply."
"Built around the latest quality and operational monitoring technologies, this platform allows anyone the ability to sustainably and affordably provide safe drinking water to consumers in urban and rural areas and in weeks instead of years," said Sanjay Bhatnagar, CEO of WaterHealth International.
OPIC’s loan to WaterHealth was committed under OPIC’s new 2X Global Women’s Initiative to mobilise USD 1 billion to invest in women and unlock the economic opportunity they represent.
In addition to expanding the availability of safe water, the project is projected to create more than 1,300 jobs in India and introduce advanced technologies and business models for providing potable water.

2nd annual chocolate bar fundraiser makes clean drinking water possible for thousands in rural cocoa-growing communities nd annual Clean Water Project.
The Clean Water Project, in partnership with the Cocoa Horizons Foundation, funds the purchase of LifeStraw Community water filters and associated hygiene and educational programs for rural communities with limited or no access to clean drinking water.
Retailing at $6 each, the 85 g milk chocolate and salted butter toffee bar is available across Canada and online starting March 26, 2018.
$2 from every bar purchased helps make safe drinking water a reality for thousands of people (especially children) in cocoa communities throughout Ivory Coast.
Purdys first launched the Clean Water Project in 2017 with the goal of raising enough funds to purchase 35 filters.
Purdys uses only 100% sustainable cocoa.
By making chocolates using only 100% sustainable cocoa, Purdys directly supports education programs, infrastructure projects, community development initiatives, access to health care for rural communities and many more such initiatives through their partnership with the Cocoa Horizons Foundation.
Clean Water Project Bar: Information & Availability About Purdys Chocolatier (purdys.com): Purdys Chocolatier was founded in 1907 in Vancouver by Richard Carmon Purdy.
Every creation at Purdys uses 100% sustainable cocoa, ensuring their cocoa farmer partners and co-ops are supported by programs that improve their profits and the livelihoods of their families and communities.
The Cocoa Horizons mission is to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their communities through the promotion of sustainable, entrepreneurial farming, improved productivity and community development.

United Nations, Mar 24 (PTI): India has welcomed the launch of an ambitious decade for action on water, expressing hope that concerted action by the international community will help in meeting the challenges of ensuring sustainable solutions to the requirement of clean water.
“We welcome (the) initiative to launch the International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development on the World Water Day,” India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Tanmaya Lal said here on Saturday.
He expressed hope that “through concerted national action and international collaboration, the international community can collectively meet the challenge of ensuring sustainable solutions to the requirement of clean water.” Speaking in the UN General Assembly on the launch of the International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development 2018-2028, Lal said the exponential growth in population, inadequately planned development of industry and urban centres, uncontrolled pollution and changing climate are together putting increasing stress on the availability of water.
Such a scenario has very serious implications affecting food and energy and health among others.
“At the same time, there are also growing instances of innovative practices and technology development that are leading to more efficient recycle and reuse in areas that are deficient in water,” Lal said.
The Decade, launched on March 22 on World Water Day, calls for a greater focus on the sustainable development and integrated management of water resources for the achievement of social, economic and environmental objectives and on the implementation and promotion of related programmes and projects, as well as on the furtherance of cooperation and partnership at all levels in order to help to achieve internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, including those contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Lal said the decade of action on water would contribute significantly in facilitating international collaboration in improving the accessibility of clean water for health, wellbeing and sustainable development.
Lal stressed that considerable work needs to be done globally to implement Sustainable Development Goal 6 of ensuring access to water and sanitation for all.
He outlined that in India, large scale efforts by the government and other stakeholders are underway to improve the availability of clean water for drinking and sanitation.
He added that cleaning of rivers is being undertaken at an unprecedented scale in the country and conservation and management of water is being pursued through practices of integrated watershed management and rainwater harvesting.

For these Americans, it is always Day Zero.
Water poverty affects nearly 1.6 million people in the United States, but it remains a stubbornly invisible crisis.
Today, African Americans are twice as likely as whites to live without modern plumbing.
On the Navajo Nation, where I work, 40 percent of the nearly 170,000 residents still haul water home in bottles or buckets, often at great expense.
Even here in California more than 1 million people rely on public drinking water systems that have violated state safety standards, threatening their health.
The most comprehensive data we have on U.S. water poverty comes from the Census Bureau, but it is maddeningly unspecific and often inaccurate.
The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey tells us there are about 1.6 million Americans living in housing that lacks “complete plumbing facilities.” That could mean they don’t have a flush toilet or a bathtub or shower.
It doesn’t tell us how communities cope with these challenges every day.
Most important, census data doesn’t explain why these communities still don’t have access to water and sanitation when nearly every other American does.
Instead of waiting for the next Cape Town or California water crisis to wonder, “Will we still have water tomorrow?” we should be asking right now, “Who needs water today?” George McGraw is the founder of Dig Deep, a nonprofit working to bring clean running water to every American.

Not surprisingly, sales of bottled water have been soaring here.
Between 2012 and 2017, Rs9,010 crore worth of bottled water was sold in the country, growing at 184%, according to data from research firm Euromonitor.
Meanwhile, volume growth stood at over 150% from 5.3 billion litres in 2012 to 13.3 billion litres in 2017, Euromonitor estimates.
Bottled water sales in India have been on the rise ’12’13’14’15’16’1702,3754,7507,125Rs9,500 crore02,3754,7507,125 Data: Euromonitor So, who’s buying all this bottled water?
It was mostly urban Indian consumers with higher disposable income but facing an acute shortage of potable water, according to Mintel’s research.
For years, consumers in hot and humid India drank copious amounts of colas and home-made beverages.
However, recent trends have shown a marked shift.
The government, too, chipped in recently by imposing higher taxes on sugary drinks, citing health concerns.
Meanwhile, a recent study published by the State University of New York found particles of plastic present in bottled water brands the world over, including those sold in India.
The category is projected to grow at over 20% for the next five years, according to Euromonitor.

HYDERABAD: Tucked a few kilometres away from the bustling Begumpet is this government school where the students have to sit amidst filth to eat their midday meal.
The school has turned into a dumpyard for construction debris with no access to toilet and drinking water facilities.
While the school education department denies the existence of pathetic conditions at the school, over 500 children have to struggle on a daily basis.
However, the government does not seem to be responsible to cater to the basic needs of the children.
It does not even have an Asha worker to serve midday meals to the children.
Shockingly, the students are forced to sit in dusty and filthy surrounding during lunch as the school has become an open space for illegal dumping of construction debris.
Moreover, the school’s playground has been encroached upon by the locals to build a community hall.
We are trying to pay money and get the construction debris dumped in the school removed.” B Venkata Narasamma, Hyderabad District Education Officer(DEO) said, “We have not received any complaints from the school.
We will visit the school once and see what their requirements are.
Government does not provide plates to students for midday meals and students should get their own plates.”