LAHORE: Residents of village Bhatti Dhilwan in Sheikhupura district, who are availing clean drinking water facility extended by a bottled water company, say the ratio of different waterborne diseases, including hepatitis, have considerably decreased in the vicinity.

Talking to reporters at the filtration plant on the World Water Day, villagers say they are getting clean water five hours a day for drinking and cooking purposes.

Ilyas Dogar, a villager, said the groundwater of their area was not of good quality and that Nestle Pakistan had sensitised the community against diseases and presence of unhealthy particles, including fecal contamination, in groundwater before setting up the plant in association with a private water treatment company.

External Projects Manager Ali Ashar told reporters that more than 5,000 villagers were getting up to 25,000 litre clean water free or cost at the plant while the company had so far established eight clean drinking water facilities at Muzaffargarh, Kot Addu, Khanewal, Kabirwala, Allahabad, Sheikhupura and Bhatti Dhilwan which were providing clean water to 50,000 people on a daily basis. He said there were three clean drinking water facilities in the Sheikhupura region. He said the company was bearing all community awareness campaigns, adding their Sheikhupura factory also engaged the community and taught them about how to conserve water and how to ensure hygiene of the containers in which they carried water to their homes.

He said the company had also launched an initiative to teach children the importance of water conservation and hydration, in partnership with Project WET (Water Education for Teachers), which was an international non-governmental organization.

Utilities Engineer Muaazbin Aqeel said the factory was reusing water that was evaporated from fresh milk in its milk drying towers. The secondary water is stored in tanks and then used for gardening.

According to him, the factory had been using groundwater for gardening and washing the facility; the evaporated water was being drained out but now the reuse of water has led to the factory improving its efficiency.

Aqeel said the factory had a wastewater treatment plant which was used to recycle all the wastewater generated in various processes, adding the recycled water was compliant with standards set by the Environment Protection Agency.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority organised a ceremony at Wapda House to mark the World Water Day.

Addressing the ceremony, Wapda Chairman Zafar Mehmood said the culture of water conservation in all walks of life should be adopted to avoid water scarcity in the country.

He said rapid growth in our population had been adversely impacting per capita availability of water in Pakistan, adding per capita availability of water which used to be 8,182 cubic meter in 1947 had decreased to an alarming level of 1,032 cubic meter in 2016, turning Pakistan into a water stressed country.

He further said if population growth remained unchecked and new water reservoirs were not constructed, Pakistan would become a water-starved country.

Mehmood said annual river flows in Pakistan stood at about 145 million acre feet on the average, of which 80 per cent was available in 100 days from April to August. “This erratic pattern of river flows necessitates construction of more dams so that water could be made available throughout the year.”

The chairman apprised the audience that Pakistan had only 10 per cent storage capacity of the annual water flows against the world average of 40 per cent. This carryover facility was sufficient only for 30 days. Emphasizing upon the need for water pricing, he said that monetary value will have to be added to water to check its wastage.

He further said as many as 10 MAF of water could be saved by lining the canals located in saline areas. “Together with conserving water through this sort of measures and constructing more water reservoirs, we can bring about 20 million acres of more land under plough.”

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2016