Bhatti Dhilwan is a locality situated at 29 kilometres Lahore-Sheikhupura Road and has an estimated population of 5,000. The mainstay of the local people is agriculture and livestock. Over the years, people of the area have suffered from high incidence of water-borne diseases such as hepatitis, dysentery etc and the reason mainly has been the lack of safe drinking water. Analysis of water samples drawn from the ground has revealed high arsenic concentration and traces of fecal content in them.

The cause behind presence of fecal content is that people build underground septic tanks that lead to contamination of underground water with human waste.

Similarly, against the approved arsenic content limit of 10 parts per billion the level is high and ranges from 20 to 60 parts and sometimes even 80. This value depends on the strata from where water is drawn. Arsenic is in concentration as geologists believe that this land lies atop a volcanic belt that has this metal in abundance. High levels of arsenic are highly detrimental to human health and cause diseases of bone and kidney and cancer.

This situation called for a timely intervention so that the locals could be saved from the attack of these hazardous and sometimes fatal diseases.

It was Nestlé Pakistan that realised the gravity of the situation and set up a modern filtration plant in Bhatti Dhilwan two years ago, says Ali Ashar, Manager External Projects for Nestle Pakistan while talking to a group of journalists visiting the site on World Water Day.

Bhatti Dhilwan is situated in the immediate vicinity of Nestle Pakistan factory on Lahore-Sheikhupura Road. The plant team visited the area, met community members, identified their needs and suggested solutions related to their drinking water needs.

Today, Ashar says, people of the area have access to high quality pure drinking water. They can visit the filtration plant from 7 am to 10 am in the morning and 4 pm to 6 pm in the evening to collect drinking water for their use. The disease burden has come down considerably which is a major achievement in itself, he adds.

Ashar shares it with TNS that they have not only constructed the plant; in fact they have also taken the responsibility of running and maintaining it. For this purpose, he says, they have hired the services of Echo Tech System International Pakistan, a world class company with expertise in water treatment. It is the same company that has set up this plant that is one of the very few that have the ability to separate excess arsenic from water.

He says there are two other filtration plants in Sheikhupura as well, including the one in the District Headquarters Hospital that provides drinking water to thousands of people every day. Furthermore, there are similar water filtration plants in Kabirwala, Allahabad village and Khanewal near Nestle Pakistan’s factory.

Simon Samson Sharaf, CEO of Echo Tech, tells TNS that water for the filtration plant is drawn from a depth of 500 feet to avoid fecal content spread by septic tanks. The plant, he says, is unique in the sense that it removes arsenic content, something that is offered only by his company in Pakistan.

Sharaf adds the most important task is to run and maintain the plant and they are doing this for Nestle Pakistan. The water of the plant is quality tested against 90 perimeters on a periodic basis to ensure its quality. The plant will be replaced next year as its life is three years and there is no compromise on this, he adds.

Muhammad Ilyas Dogar, an elderly community member in Bhatti Dhilwan, tells TNS that the factory also engages the community and teaches them about how to conserve water and how to ensure hygiene of the containers in which they carry water to their homes. If the container is dirty, he says, there is no use coming to the plant and collecting clean drinking water. He says people are also asked to treat this water as a precious commodity and not to use it for cooking or bathing.

Nestlé Pakistan has also launched an initiative to teach children the importance of water conservation and hydration, in partnership with Project WET (Water Education for Teachers), which is an international non-governmental organisation.

The first step entails training teachers about water conservation and hydration in an interactive manner. They will then pass the knowledge onto their students. The trainings are a part of the Nestlé Healthy Kids (NHK) Programme -- a global initiative through which children are introduced to a healthy lifestyle.

Ahmad Nawaz, Plant Manager, Nestlé Waters, tells TNS that their yearly goal is to reduce the water footprint by 4 to 5 per cent and by 2020, Nestlé aims to reduce its water usage by 40 per cent. Between 2003 and 2013 alone, it has improved water efficiency in its operations by 22 per cent.

The factory, he says, is also reusing the water that is evaporated from fresh milk in its milk drying towers. The secondary water is stored in tanks and then used for gardening. 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 improved its efficiency.

Another use of ‘secondary water’ is that it is being used in boilers. The initiative has also led to the factory being more energy efficient because the water withdrawn from the ground (the temperature of which is 25 degree celsius) had to be heated. The evaporated water is at 55 degrees celsius that saves energy required for heating.

Muaaz bin Aqeel, Utilities Engineer for the factory, says that the factory has a wastewater treatment plant which is used to recycle all the wastewater generated in various processes.

The recycled water is compliant with standards set by Environment Protection Agency. The factory is currently reusing 25 per cent of the water it recycles while the rest is being discharged into the drain that runs outside the factory. In the future, the factory plans to reuse all the water it recycles, he adds.

No doubt such initiatives are a contribution worth emulation, but do not absolve the state of its responsibilities. These are success stories that need to be replicated and followed by others, especially the state that has the resources and the writ to extend such services across the country.