PCRWR Takes Steps To Revive All Water Testing Laboratories

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Oct, 2019 ) :Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) Chairman Dr Muhammad Ashraf Wednesday said functioning of all water testing laboratories working under his council will help ensure provision of clean drinking water to the citizens.

Out of 25 water testing laboratories of PCRWR across the country,18 laboratories were dysfunctional since last many years and over 200 employees working there were shifted to the other departments.

Talking to APP, Dr Ashraf said that the Minister of Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain soon after assuming charge of his office decided to make all the laboratories functional to provide facility of water quality testing which is direly needed.

Earlier, only six labs of PCRWR in Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, Tandojam and Bahawalpur were functional however the remaining labs were not operational since a long period.

These all labs have started working again with transfer of employees back to their offices, Dr Ashraf said and hoped these labs would help make the authority self sufficient and help in revenue generation, he said.

PCRWR has also developed microbiological testing kits, low-cost arsenic detection testing kits and production of chlorination and disinfection tablets for ensuring provision of clean drinking water, he said.

The council is offering water quality testing and advisory services as a continuous activity for the detection and source localization of pollution and quantification of pollutants by using international standard methods for assessment of drinking water (potable, bottled and mineral water), irrigation water, industrial effluents, aquatic life and eco-system (fisheries etc.), filtration systems, recreational pollutants and environmental impacts.

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