President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday said that water scarcity was a massive challenge for the country and emphasized that water preservation and conservation, was need of the hour ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 24th Jan, 2019 ) :President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday said that water scarcity was a massive challenge for the country and emphasized that water preservation and conservation, was need of the hour.
He said this during a briefing by Hissar Foundation on Water issues at Aiwan-e-Sadr.
The President said that water was a matter of life and death for the future generation and underscored that a comprehensive and dynamic water policy would have to be developed to meet the future needs of the country.
He said that for this purpose a comprehensive data must be collected, related and analyzed in order to make right decisions.
The President underlined that modern research and technologies for the conservation of water must be developed.
He also stated that all universities and relevant departments must promote and provide basis for further research on this issue.
The President stressed that there was a dire need to enhance public motivation and awarenessthrough media to preserve water.
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Staff Reporter Islamabad The Supreme Court, hearing a suo motu case on the shortage of clean drinking water in Balochistan’s Bhagnari area on Friday, formed a commission tasked with coming up with recommendations for ending the shortage.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar had taken suo motu notice of the non-availability of pure and safe drinking water to the people of Bhagnari, Bolan.
Justice Nisar asked the deputy commissioner Bolan if the video played in court was authentic, to which the latter replied in the affirmative.The DC said that all the problems in the area were due to a shortage of water, and added that an RO plant would be set up there in two months.
Residents of Bhagnari, who appeared in court, told the bench that their situation is “even worse than Thar”.
“Only one road leads to Bhagnari, and it is an hour’s journey,” they said.
“Even in Thar, no one seems ready to drink water from an RO plant,” Justice Nisar, who had recently visited the area, said.
He wondered why a development authority had not been formed for Thar, and directed the Sindh advocate general to ask the chief minister to form a Thar Development Authority.
“All the money goes into salaries.
Do you know how much their directors’ salaries are?
“I will summon the Balochistan chief minister, I will summon the entire cabinet if I have to.”The court formed a two-member commission headed by Supreme Court Bar Association President Amanullah Kanrani.

The minister expressed these views while responding to a calling attention notice regarding non-availability of potable water in all parts of the country particularly Islamabad and Karachi.
He said the federal government had formed a task force under the Sindh governor to address water scarcity and other important issues in Karachi.
The minister said water supply was a devolved subject under the 18th amendment; however, the federal government was very much concerned over it and would extend full support to the provinces in that regard.
About the K4 water project in Karachi, he said about Rs 12 billion had been released to the Sindh government.
He said the federal government and the provincial governments needed to collaborate and take steps to ensure that every citizen of the country had clean drinking water.
He said water issue required attention of all the political parties.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan recently chaired a meeting of National Water Council and stressed the need for integrated approach for conservation, storage, management and efficient utilization of the available water resources.
He stressed the need for chalking out a comprehensive roadmap in consultation with provinces and other stakeholders, for the implementation of National Water Policy (NWP).
Pakistan Muslim League Ahsan Iqbal dispelled the impression that his government had not focused on water issues.
Pakistan Peoples Party Syed Khursheed Shah alleged that no funds had been allocated by the federal government to address water issue in Karachi.

Islamabad : Speakers at the conference on water security of Pakistan called for addressing the issue by devising multi-facet solutions, says a press release.
Lieutenant General (r) Muhammad Zahir Ul Islam, Chairman, CGSS, in his opening remarks pointed out that in recent years, Pakistan has suffered from severe water shortages, flooding and declining water quality.
The worsening water crisis must be resolved if the country is ever to achieve stability and progress.
Agnes Pompos, International Water Expert on Peaceful Water Sharing on Role of International Convention and Agreements in Peaceful Water Sharing, stated the conventions are significant because it creates a framework, a template for existing and future basin agreements and promotes optimal and sustainable utilization for present and future generations.
Minister of State for Climate Change, Zartaj Gul who was chief guest of the occasion presented keynote speech on water security and its Importance for Pakistan.
“Our country is suffering from history’s worst water crisis that requires coordinated efforts at multiple fronts; individual, community, tehsil, district, provincial and national.
There is a need to create public awareness through capacity-building,” she added.
Advocate Ahmer Bilal Soofi- former federal law minister presented his views on Indian violation of Indus Water Treaty.
Shams ul Mulk, former chairman, Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), spoke on futurist profiling of River Indus with special emphasis on water flowing from western borders and stressed that Kalabagh Dam was the project that could have given Pakistan electricity at the most cheapest rates.
The conference ended by the concluding remarks of the Chairman CGSS and distribution of mementos.

Islamabad The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday said the scarcity of water is transforming the country into a desert which requires the immediate attention of the government.
A country dependent on agriculture has framed its first National Water Policy after seventy long years while the provinces like Punjab and Sindh have yet to announce their water policies, it said.
Water scarcity has been felt across the country but nobody seems concerned about water management to reduce its wastage, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President PEW.
He said that per capita availability of water in Pakistan stood at 5,260 cubic metres in 1951 which was reduced to 1000 cubic meters by 2016 and it is likely to further drop to about 860 by 2025 which will be a doomsday scenario for the country.
Dr. Murtaza Mughal said that the Indus River system receives an annual influx of about 134.8 million acre-feet (MAF) of water of which water worth sixty billion dollars is wasted.
Reduced supply and increased demand has forced people, mostly farmers, to extract around 50 million acre-feet of groundwater which is unsustainable, he said.
Around ninety-five percent of the available water is utilised by the agricultural sector which a major chunk is wasted by water-intensive crops of sugarcane and rice.

Water resource is a necessity for sustaining life on earth.
According to an IMF report, Pakistan ranks third among countries most affected by water scarcity.
It said the country touched the “water stress line” in 1990 and crossed the “water scarcity line” in 2005.
And worst of all is that the authorities have given no indication that they plan to do anything about any of this increasing water shortage.” The UN report also highlights that the most immediate threats to the masses would be of increasing water shortage, and Neil Buhne, UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Pakistan, said, “No person in Pakistan, whether from the north with its more than 5,000 glaciers, or from the south with its ‘hyper deserts’, will be immune to this.” Recent flash floods as a result of heavy rainfall have been witnessed in different areas of Pakistan for instance Lahore and Faisalabad.
Recycling at household level would also help in solving the problem.
For gardening purpose, use simple rainwater barrels.
Apart from it, rain garden could be constructed so that it reuses water that would otherwise run off into the sewage systems.
For the agriculture system, irrigation management practices may solve the problem.
Along with the rain-fed management practice, some techniques are the use of supplemental irrigation and water harvesting techniques, such as rain catchment systems and weirs or sand dams.
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Srinagar Residents of Sursona village of South Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Thursday staged a protest demonstration against the water scarcity in the area.
Scores of the protestors assembled near Islamabad’s Bejbehra railway station and blocked the Srinagar Banihal train service for hours.
“We all are facing the immense hardships due to the unhygienic water from past 3 months, adding that the residents are forced to drink the unhygienic water of streams,” said Mushtaq Ahmed, a resident of Sursona village.
The residents lamented that lack of potable water causes poor hygiene besides many other problems.
They appealed the concerned authorities to look into the matter.
“We will be forced to stage a protest if the concerned authorities fail to restore drinking water supply to the area at the earliest,” said another protestor.
The residents further said that the area is mainly dependent on the water supply.
They alleged that matter has been brought to the notice of the concerned administration but no improvement has been witnessed.
When contacted chief Executive Engineer, PHE Department Bijbehara he said due to the excessive rate of iron found in the water tank, the authorities had partially stopped the water supply for the said village, adding that “I assure to bring the matter into the notice of higher authorities and hopefully the problem will be sorted out soon.”

One can see this from the National Drinking Water Policy of Pakistan which says, “Access to safe drinking water is the basic human right of every citizen and it is responsibility of the state to ensure its provision to all citizens.” One can also imagine the seriousness of the government in implementation of the policy by looking at the fact that currently Pakistan’s major cities are facing worsening water shortage because of the rapid depletion of ground water.
The situation of water shortage is not any different even in Islamabad — the federal capital and the only planned city with a population of more than two million.
Islamabad has long been facing a challenge of water shortage every year.
Consequently, citizens bear an additional financial pressure on their monthly expenses due to an inadequate water supply.
Islamabad is managed by two key offices, ie, the CDA and the Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad (MCI).
Regarding water issues, the debate of jurisdiction and mandate of these two authorities can be circumvented due to the reason that the mayor of MCI is also chairing the CDA.
In the first month of 2018, the CDA circulated a public notice to prevent waste of water to ensure continued water supply for necessary use till monsoon.
To solve the issue, the MCI and the CDA should establish a long-term ‘Water Master Plan’ to ensure sufficient water supply for the projected demand.
To achieve the objectives, multi-stakeholder engagement and capacity-building of the relevant institutions at the local level is also required.
Awareness campaigns aimed at increasing behavioural change should be based on the national water policy.

ISLAMABAD: Only 36 percent of the Pakistani population on average, including 41% in urban areas and 32% rural areas, has access to safe drinking water in the country, a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed.
Results of the water-quality monitoring efforts by the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) indicate that 69 to 85% of collected samples of water were contaminated.
He said that the poor quality of drinking water has forced a large cross-section of citizens to buy bottled water.
As a consequence, a mushrooming of bottled water industry in the country has been witnessed during the last few years.
Many mineral/bottled water companies, however, were found selling contaminated water.
To monitor and improve the quality of bottled water, the government through Ministry of Science and Technology has designated the task to PCRWR for quarterly monitoring of bottled/mineral water brands and publicise the results.
According to the monitoring report for the quarter from July to September, 2017, 104 samples of mineral/bottled water brands have been collected from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Peshawar, Multan, Lahore, Quetta, Bahawalpur, Tandojam, Karachi and Muzaffarabad.
Comparison of analytical findings with permissible limits of Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has revealed that 9 brands were found to be unsafe due to chemical and microbiological contaminations.
Excessive level of arsenic can cause various types of skin diseases, diabetes, kidney diseases, hypertension, heart diseases birth defects, black foot diseases and multiple types of cancers etc.
The rest were found to be unsafe due to microbiological contamination which may cause cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis, typhoid, etc.

ISLAMABAD: The microbial contamination of drinking water in Islamabad has intensified due to lack of proper disposal of municipal waste, posing serious health hazards to the residents of the capital.
The report compiled by Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) –a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune — reveals that 68% water sources were found unfit for drinking purpose in Islamabad and 62% in Rawalpindi. Water quality of Rawalpindi city has been found better and improved then of Islamabad.
A total of 25 predetermined locations were monitored for the drinking water quality of Islamabad, out of them 17 sources were found unfit for drinking purpose.
The major contaminant found in the drinking water was bacteria, as 68% of the water samples were found contaminated with Coliforms. However the surface run-off, increased concentrations of nutrients and municipal waste are major contributing sources for higher bacterial contamination in drinking water, according to the report.
He said that around 37 filtration plants are installed at different locations in the capital meanwhile water purification plant is installed at Simly Dam in order to provide clean drinking water to the people of Islamabad.
The report further shows a significant improvement in the water quality of Rawalpindi city since 2002 as safe water sources has increased from 27% in 2002 to 43% in 2016.