A four-year report by the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources states that 86 per cent of the 28 samples tested in the report in Karachi were contaminated.
Samples collected from Islamabad were 68 per cent adulterated and Lahore had 25 per cent of the tested samples polluted by bacterial contaminants.
In 2015, 81 percent of the samples were deemed contaminated due to bacterial presence.
In most rural areas of Pakistan, ground surface water and tube wells are used for drinking without slow sand filtration and chlorination at filtration stations.
Since most of the cities of Pakistan consume ground water as the primary source of drinking water, its infestation with various pathogens such as viral, bacterial and protozoan agents cause 2.5 million deaths from endemic diarrheal disease each year.
“Direct consumption of water is not the only way one can get ill; dirty water used to wash vegetables can often lead to waterborne diseases directly as well,” says Dr Taj.
“Good hygienic care and consistent socio-economic backup support is required from the councils to ameliorate the disease burden as treatment lays in prevention.” According to Dr Taj, a higher number of people are seen with acute viral hepatitis as it needs immediate tending to than chronic diseases like diarrhea.
AVH is caused due to the transmission of viruses through the fecal-oral route.
Prevention strategies can include source protection, halogenation of water, or boiling water for one minute.
In 2016, an outbreak of a drug resistant strain of Typhoid alerted people from consuming food and water products of questionable nature.