Safe water is a fundamental human need. Each person on Earth requires at least 20 to 50 liters of clean water a day for drinking, cooking, and simply keeping themselves clean. Polluted water isn’t just dirty—it’s deadly. Some 1.8 million people die every year of diarrheal diseases like cholera. Tens of millions of others are seriously sickened by water-related ailments—many of which are easily preventable. The United Nations considers universal access to clean water a basic human right, and an essential step towards improving living standards worldwide. Water-poor communities remain economically poor; their residents are trapped in an ongoing cycle of poverty. Economic opportunities are routinely lost to the impacts of rampant illness and the time-consuming processes of acquiring water where it is not readily available. Children and women bear the brunt of these burdens. Unfortunately, the people of province of Sindh are facing worst form of water pollution and bad sanitation conditions since two decades, when the curse of devolution of powers to local level was suddenly introduced. It was the period when supply of basic necessities including clean water started suffering from bad to worse which have now reached peak level.
It is appalling to hear through no other than the Government’s own departments during a hearing of water commission, set up under a petition of a known writer, lawyer and crusader for clean water in Sindh-Shahabddin Usto, admitted that more than 80% of drinking water being supplied for consumption of people is polluted and hazardous for human consumption. A report called by the Commission on the affairs of clean water in the province mentions that 460 water samples were collected from surface and underground sources and reverse osmosis (RO) plants in different districts of Sindh by Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources teams.
It was further disclosed that water samples were analyzed for detailed physicochemical and microbiological drinking water quality parameters. The analytical data was compared with the World Health Organisation, Sindh Environmental Quality Standards and National Environmental Quality Standards guideline values recommended for safe drinking water. All analysis done this way clearly suggested that the water being supplied and consumed by people in Sindh is most hazardous for human consumption. No heads rolled; no one sitting at the top of affairs summoned to explain on account of their crime against humanity; just paper work-contempt notices inviting explanations; formulating committees etc was the business the water commission could do at the most. Yet fortunately the water Commission has not completed its task. I hope, the Commission will complete its task sooner than later and let not any one escape from their fundamental responsibility to the people of the Sindh province.
ABDUL SAMAD CHANNA,
Karachi, September 19.
