1,500 schools to get facility of clean drinking water

Islamabad : As many as 1,500 schools would soon get the facility of clean drinking water across the country under the project to be launched by Ministry of Science and Technology.

Clean drinking water was the basic right of every citizen but the previous government denied this right to people, an official in the Ministry of Science and Technology told this agency.

The ministry was planning for the provision of safe and clean drinking water to the general public and the projects in this regard would be initiated soon on the directives of Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain.

To a question, he said water wasted in agriculture sector was detrimental for the economy, adding, the present government was taking several steps to conserve water.

He said investments in the fields of science and technology were among the top priority of the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the ministry was going to commercialize 26 of its water laboratories across the country.

The poor quality of drinking water had forced a large cross-section of citizens to buy bottled water.

However, many of the mineral water companies were found selling contaminated water, he added.

He said drinking water quality was deteriorating continually due to biological contamination from human waste, chemical pollutants from industries and agricultural inputs.

The official said that piped water also gets contaminated because pipes were laid very close to sewerage lines or open drains and cause many serious water borne diseases.

He said it was observed that 45 per cent of infant deaths have been attributed to diarrhoea and about 60 per cent to overall infectious waterborne diseases in the country.