ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The National Assembly was told on Friday that only 36 percent of Pakistan’s population – 41 percent urban and 32 percent rural – was using safe drinking water according to World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF reports.
In a written reply during the question hour in the Lower House, the Parliamentary Secretary for Science and Technology Abdul Ghaffar Dogar said that results of the water quality monitoring efforts of Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) indicated that 69 to 85 percent collected samples of water were contaminated.
The parliamentary secretary said that provision of safe drinking water falls within the purview of provincial governments after the 18th amendment to the Constitution.
However, PCRWR, an R&D organization working under the Ministry of Science and Technology, disseminated its research findings regarding the water quality status in the Country to provincial and local governments, Public Health Engineering Departments (PHEDs) and Water and Sanitation Agencies (WASA).
The parliament secretary said that the federal government has established 24 Water Quality Monitoring Laboratories all over the Country.
