The Network Campaign on National drinking water policy

First Feed back

The Network for Consumer Protection (TN) successfully completes first round of public consultation meetings in order to bring forward the concerns of consumers on drinking water problems. Meetings were held at Sargodha, Thul distt Jacobabad, Larkana, Sita dist. Dadu, Johi dist. Dadu, Hyderabad, Sakrand dist. Nawabshah, Rahim Yar Khan, D. G. Khan, Multan, Toba Tek Singh, D. I. Khan, Haripur, Mirpur AJK and Mardan, where hundreds of people participated and put forward their concerns and suggestions for National Drinking Water Policy (NDWP). TN is a member of National Committee for Water and Sanitation (NCCWS) headed by Federal Secretary of Environment. Committee’s primary task is to formulate a draft for of NDWP.

Repeated Comments.

1. Diseases like Gastro, Hepatitis and Typhoid are every where due to bad
quality drinking water.

2. Drinking water should be treated as human and technical issue rather than a political problem

3. Thanks to TheNetwork and host organization for bringing consumer participation in drinking water policy to the door step of common citizen and trying to include their input in the policy.

4. They have little expectations that their issues will be catered for through this process.

5. The issue of poor governance is affecting the progress.

6. We did not have funding problem for drinking water, but corruption has made it worse.

7. Political decision making in drinking water has made the situation worse, like placing schemes at inappropriate location and political supporters using it for irrigating their lands.

8. They have a strong feeling that policies are made in five star environments with little knowledge of grass root issues and thus unsuccessful.

9. The basic reason for bad quality drinking water is worn out pipes and

10. Sewerage pipes being close to the water supply pipes

11. Mixing of untreated sewerage water and industrial waste both in fresh water and ground water is a serious issue.

Suggestions (TN Team)

1. Drinking water policy should address issues of rural and urban area separately.

2. Most of the water supply schemes are closed. Rehabilitating these projects could be a
viable attempt.

3. Filtration plants at the UC level are a good make shift arrangement, but this is full of
pitfalls. needs good planning.
(See our notes on filtration plants)

4. We have existing water supply schemes at almost all Tehsil HQs. This infrastructure
at 400 places in Pakistan is in shambles.
(Bhalwal, Sargodha and Qambar Ali Khan)
we need to rehabilitate this setup and make use of it , ensuring that drinking water is
safe at source at least.
(See our notes on rehabilitation of water supply schemes).

5. Use of plastic shopping bags should be phased out to avoid choking of drains and
hence mixing of dirty water with drinking water.

7. Bad quality water and poverty correlation is not well understood. Efforts should be
made to highlight it.