EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Water is an essential element for our survival. Unfortunately, while Pakistan is blessed with adequate surface and groundwater resources, rapid population growth, urbanization and unsustainable water consumption practices have placed immense stress on the quality as well as the quantity of water resources in the country. Deterioration in water quality and contamination of lakes, rivers and groundwater aquifers has resulted in increased waterborne diseases and other health impacts.
Per capita water availability in Pakistan has decreased from 5,000 cubic meters per annum in 1951 to 1,100. The principal source of drinking water for the majority of people in Pakistan is groundwater. About 80% of the Punjab has fresh groundwater, but in Sindh, less than 30% of groundwater is fresh. In NWFP, increasing abstraction has resulted in wells now reaching into saline layers, and much of Balochistan has saline groundwater.
As per Government figures, the Punjab has the best rural water supply amongst the provinces. It is stated that only 7 % of the rural population depends on a dug well or a river, canal or stream. In Sindh, some 24% of the rural population depends on these sources. The rural water supply situation in NWFP and Balochistan is worse; about 46% and 72% respectively of the rural population depend on water from a dug well or from a river/canal/stream.
There is a clear evidence that groundwater in the country is being over-exploited, yet tens of thousands of additional wells are being put into service every year. There is an urgent need to develop policies and approaches for bringing water withdrawal into balance with recharge.
A national water quality study was carried out by the Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) in 2001. In the first phase of the programme, covering 21 cities, all samples from four cities and half the samples from seventeen cities indicated bacteriological contamination. In addition, arsenic above the WHO limit of 10ppb was found in some samples collected from eight cities. The same study also indicated how the uncontrolled discharge of industrial effluent has affected surface and groundwater, identifying the presence of lead, chromium and cyanide in groundwater samples from industrial areas of Karachi, and finding the same metals in the Malir and Lyari rivers flowing through Karachi and discharging into the sea. A second PCRWR study was launched in 2004, and preliminary results indicate no appreciable improvement, while a separate study reported that in Sindh almost 95% of shallow groundwater supplies are bacteriologically contaminated.
There is very little separation of municipal wastewater from industrial effluent in Pakistan. Both flow directly into open drains, which then flow into nearby natural water bodies. There is no regular monitoring programme to assess the water quality of the surface and groundwater bodies. There is no surface water quality standard or drinking water quality standard in Pakistan. A comparison of the quality of surface water with the effluent discharge standard clearly demonstrates the extent of pollution in the water bodies due to the discharge of industrial and municipal effluent.