Toxic underground water detected in 29 major cities of Pakistan, NA told

KARACHI: Toxic underground water was found in 29 major cities of Pakistan, which can lead to lead to serious diseases, including cancer, it emerged on Tuesday

According to a report, the government has detected toxic water in 29 major cities, including Karachi, Shaheed Benazirabad, Mirpurkhas and Gilgit-Baltistan.

This was disclosed in a written reply submitted to the National Assembly (NA) by the Minister for Science and Technology Senator Shibli Faraz in response to a question asked by PPP's Mussarat Rafiq Mahesar.

The documents state that the water contaminated with arsenic, iron, fluoride and bacteria is causing skin damage.

According to the results of underground water samples taken by the Pakistan Council of Research of Water Resou¬rces (PSCRWR), an institution of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the water of 29 major cities of the country is polluted and harmful for health.

The water of Shaheed Benazirabad, Mirpurkhas and Gilgit-Baltistan is 100% unsafe.

The contamination of water in Multan was 94%, Karachi 93%, Badin 92%, Bahawalpur 76%, Sargodha 83%, Hyderabad 80%, Muzaffarabad 70% and Sukkur 67%, according to the PSCRWR.

The House was told that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab have done a lot of work on the issue of drinking water and that all provinces should pass laws on the issue of drinking water beyond politics.

According to a Dawn report, when Faraz was asked for an explanation on what steps the federal government had taken to provide safe drinking water to the citizens, the minister said water was a provincial matter after the passage of the 18th Amendment in the Constitution.

The job of his ministry, Faraz was reported as saying, was only to carry out tests of water through the PCRWR. He said the periodic water quality monitoring reports of the PCRWR were published and shared with the provincial and local governments for undertaking improvement measures at their end, the publication reported.