When the water turns deadly

The sudden deaths of about 14,000 Sunehri fish in Rawal Dam last week raised the possibility that the largest supplier of water to Rawalpindi may pose a hazard to the health of its residents. The results from the first reports have not been encouraging. The Capital Development Authority laboratory tests found higher than normal levels of waste contamination in the water. The Chemical Oxygen Demand levels in Rawal Dam were found to be over 200 mg/litre – well above the acceptable international levels. However, it is the provincial government and not the CDA which is ultimately responsible for water safety in Rawal Dam and it has not yet reported the results of its own tests. The provincial government sent samples of the water and poisoned fish to laboratories across the country and restored the supply of water to Rawalpindi after getting an all-clear from the Water and Sanitation Authority, the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources and the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency. The Punjab government now needs to release the full results of all the tests it carried out so that it can be reconciled with the worrying findings of the CDA.

We already knew that the water in Rawal Dam was not fit for human consumption until it had been further treated or boiled. But the poisoning of the fish raises the danger that it may still be deadly. The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources has previously found that only 72 percent of water supply schemes are functional and out of those 84 percent supply water that is not fit to be consumed. The water is frequently contaminated by agents like arsenic and so more than 40 percent of the population does not have access to clean water. The problem is particularly acute in rural areas and smaller provinces. Needless to say, the blame for this can be placed squarely on a state which has never taken seriously its duty to provide the public with essential human rights like clean water. The problems at Rawal Dam are a mere drop in the ocean. Certainly, we need to get to the bottom of how it got so polluted that thousands of fish were killed but doing that will only be a start. We need to overhaul how regularly water is tested and, above all, need a change in the mindset of a government that is not used to the idea that it exists to serve the people.