The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) has revealed that 90 percent of the rural population lack access to safe drinking water.
PCRWR officials said that only 15 percent to 18 percent of the groundwater water samples taken were safe for drinking both in urban and rural areas of the country, the Daily Times reports.
According to the report, 79 percent of the sources of functional Water Supply Schemes (WSS) in Punjab were unsafe for drinking.
The report further showed that around 40 percent of these schemes were unsafe due to microbiological contamination, while about 23 percent contained major pollutants, like total dissolved solids (TDS), chloride, sodium, iron, arsenic and fluoride.
These could cause
PCRWR reportedly found 59 percent of the water samples unfit for drinking in Islamabad, while 83 percent of the samples collected from villages across Rawalpindi district were deemed unsafe by the officials.
These figures far exceeded Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority guidelines, the report added.
In Faisalabad, out of 162 Water Supply Schemes (WSS), 58 were not functional.
Among the non-functional WSSs, 62 percent were temporarily, while 38 percent were permanently closed.
The report added that out of 202 WSSs in the Chakwal district, only 21 percent were supplying safe water from the sources.
According to the report, mostly untreated water was being supplied to the consumers, which was causing many waterborne diseases among adults and kids, like diarrhea and dysentery.
Safe drinking water was only being supplied in 17 percent of the rural areas of the Rawalpindi district, the report added.
The report also suggested that such high levels of water contamination were a result of the unhygienic practices in the rural areas, particularly due to lack of education.
