Country nearing threshold of water scarcity, warn speakers

LAHORE: Pakistan is nearing the threshold of water scarcity.  Access to safe drinking water in the rural and urban areas is declining and provision of potable water is a key issue that people face.

This was stated by the speakers during a media briefing session conducted by WWF-Pakistan under the project titled International Labour and Environmental Standards (ILES) Application in Pakistan’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at a local hotel. 

According to  WWF-Pakistan Director General Hammad Naqi Khan Pakistan  is nearing the threshold of water scarcity. He said access to safe drinking water in the rural and urban areas was declining and provision of potable water was a key issue that people faced. He said that the implementation of laws pertaining to industrial effluents generated from the textile and leather industries were very weak. Further, industrial waste from these industries contains heavy metals such as copper, chromium and nickel,  he added.

He also said that a large population of major cities in Pakistan did not have access to safe drinking water as freshwater resources were being contaminated due to multiple reasons. He was of the view that safe drinking water should be made available to the population and industries needed to ensure proper disposal of solid and liquid waste. Industries should also ensure that the labour force working in their facilities were not exposed to harmful chemicals. WWF-Pakistan is committed to protecting the freshwater resources of the country and improving water access, efficiency, and allocation for people and the environment, he added. 

Arjmand Qayyum, coordinator, ILES, WWF-Pakistan, said that the textile and leather sectors represented the largest domain of the industrial base and played a key role in the country’s economy. He shared that these industries were resource intensive where large amounts of water, energy and chemicals of different classes were used, contributing to an overall increase in pollution levels in the country. This has consequential impacts on natural resources, the health of the people and eventually on overall economic conditions. He also said that due to poor management and unwise use of water, most of the population in the country was deprived of this basic amenity of life. He said that WWF-Pakistan would initiate a study on the situation analysis of water resources in Karachi and establish a case for a citywide partnership for responsible use of the resource. 

Sohaib Anwar, senior officer, ILES, WWF-Pakistan, said that it was critical to analyse the current situation and revise statistics on water quantity and quality in major cities of Pakistan. He said that various industrial sectors in the city must reduce their carbon footprint and make climate resilient initiatives that would help address the issues related to water and energy efficiency in the cities while a better image of Pakistan would be projected in front of the world. 

The six-year project, International Labour and Environmental Standards (ILES) Application in Pakistan’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), funded by the European Union, is jointly being implemented with the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Lahore, Karachi, Sialkot and Faisalabad. The project aims to implement international labour and environmental standards in Pakistan to improve the capacity of the public sector to implement Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and national environmental laws and standards in Pakistan. The project involves building capacity of the textile and leather sector to adopt Smart Environmental Management Practices (SEMPs) to efficiently use water and energy resources and reduce the use of hazardous chemicals by 15 to 20 percent. The purpose of the project is to contribute to improvement in industry-based laws so that Pakistan’s export market can compete with international labour and environmental standards.