Peshawar: PTI Fails To Provide Clean Drinking Water In 10-year Long Rule

Provision of safe and clean drinking water to people is one of the prime responsibilities of the government to ensure a healthy and prosperous society

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Mar, 2023 ) :Provision of safe and clean drinking water to people is one of the prime responsibilities of the government to ensure a healthy and prosperous society.

Safe and clean drinking water besides adequate sanitation are not only crucial for protecting citizens from waterborne diseases and reduction of poverty but also inevitable for sustainable economic development and achieving UN millennium development goals.

On July 28, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly through a resolution had declared safe and clean drinking water and adequate sanitation was a basic human right for all citizens of the members states including Pakistan.

The 1973 Constitution of Pakistan has also declared that access to safe and clean water, education, communication and health services was the basic fundamental rights of all citizens of the country.

Unfortunately, the former PTI government inspite of international commitment and national obligations has failed to provide safe and clean drinking water to its people despite its ten years long rule in Khyber Pakthunkhwa and four years in Centre.

"Despite serving for about 10 years long continuous rule in Khyber Pakthunkhwa, the former Pakistan Tahrik e Insaf government has completely failed to provide clean drinking water to Peshawarties and forced them to drink contaminated water," said Ikhtair Wali Khan, PMLN KP Spokesman while talking to APP on Monday.

He said PTI government has made tall claims to provide clean drinking water facilities to all people of Khyber Pakthunkhwa including Peshawar that later proved a hallow slogans like the so called promises including of construction of five million houses, one million jobs to youth and covering PM and Governor Houses into university and libraries.

Ikhtair Wali while referring to report of a national scientific organization said that except Hayatabad township, the quality of water in rest of Peshawar was not safe for drinking purposes and its nearly two million population were exposed to use contaminated water, which spoke volume of the PTI's Government poor water policies and incompetency of PTI rulers.

He said the rusted water pipes in old Peshawar city and other adjoining residential areas cause contamination of water due to leakage and was exposing people to many water born diseases including stomach. He accused PTI government for its failure to replace all the rusty and leakage water pipes in Peshawar.

Wali said the seepage from surrounding sewerage pipes passing through interior city contaminates water when it is supplied to housing units even in posh areas and that PTI instead to protect children and women from water borne diseases by constructing new hospitals has used huge taxpayers money on Billion Trees Project taken over by the NAB and BRT project constructed on huge cost compare to Islamabad and Multan metros.

"Even water from the wells and hands pumps dug by residents at their houses was not safe for drinking because it was close to surface ie just 50-60 ft deep, with high chances of contamination and high content of magnesium at Peshawar." As per standards of World Health Organisation (WHO), the Magnesium content limit in water should be at least 150 parts per million (PPM) but water samples taken from the residential areas in Peshawar showed presence of Magnesium content up to 250 PPM thus making Peshawarties vulnerable to stomach and others waterborne diseases.

The high level of water and plastic pollutions in the rivers, watercourses and ponds especially in Peshawar vicinity including in Rivers Kabul, Khayali and Swat have further aggravated the water situation in Peshawar and Charasadda.

Ikhtair Wali said that PTI government had made tall claims to launch mega water project to provide clean water from River Kabul and Mohmand dam to Peshawar but failed to materialize it.

Instead to provide basic fundamental rights to masses and address flood victims problems, he said that PTI dissolved its own provincial assemblies and governments in KP and Punjab and later started Jail Bharo Tehrik in a bid to create political anarchy and unrest in the society.

Owais Sufi, communication specialist KP cities improvement project told APP that work on mega project worth Rs99 billion was being started for provision of clean drinking to cities of Peshawar, Mardan, MIngora, Abbotabad and Kohat districts. Under the project, he said solid waste would be lifted in these cities and disposed off besides sanitation services to be improved including in Peshawar.

To control environmental pollution, he said that new green belts would be constructed in these cities while new water tanks and pipes would also be provided to the citizens.

In order to address water problems of Peshawar, a Wapda official told APP that Mohmand dam was most feasible technical project from where water would be brought to Peshawar. He said about 300 million gallons of water per day would be supplied to Peshawar for drinking purposes, adding its annual benefits have been estimated at Rs 51.6 billion.

Besides clean drinking water potential, he said Mohmand dam has the capacity to generate 800 megawatts (MW) of low-cost hydel electricity, irrigate 15,100 acres of land and control floods downstream districts including Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera and DI Khan.

He said the dam would also store about 1.2 million acre-feet (MAF) of water, besides supplementing 160,000 acres of existing land and about 16,700 acres of new land will also be irrigated.