World Water Day today: Water scarcity and health

Arguably and statistically, one of the biggest threats endangering human lives is not the threat of a global nuclear war or the growing Ozone hole; it is the problem of access to clean and uncontaminated drinking water. More than a billion people, about one fifth of the entire world’s population lack access to water fit for human consumption, and this clearly means we are facing a global water crisis.

Once thought to be fresh ground water, our water sources are acutely contaminated with pathogens (bacteria and viruses) and poisonous chemicals like arsenic etc, leading to illnesses like diarrhoea, cholera and other common infectious diseases. The drinking water problem is a leading cause of death and disease in the world, taking the lives of more than 14,000 people each day, 11,000 of them children under age five. Diarrhoea alone, which is most easily acquired from contaminated water and is one of the major causes of death amongst children under five, is causing 1.5 million deaths each year(around 4,100 children each day are dying due to water borne diseases).

The story does not end here though, as the drinking water problem is affecting hundreds of millions of lives in many other ways too, ie in addition to the health problems, women and girls specially spend more than 200 million hours every day walking to collect water from distant but often still polluted sources – time that could be better spent on more productive endeavours such as work and education.

Around 443 million school days are lost due to water borne illnesses. When you combine these factors, it’s evident that the global water crisis is the single biggest problem facing the world’s poor, preventing them from reaching even the first rung on the socio-economic ladder.

Bringing Pakistan under the microscope of drinking water issues, the situation is sadly on the worst end. A 2006 survey done by the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) under the National Water Quality Monitoring Programme initiative is a huge testament to the above fact. This survey constituted water quality samples taken from 23 major cities from all provinces and the results were horrendous! Out of the 357 water source samples collected, 312 were declared unfit for human consumption.

In Karachi, 93% of water supply sources were declared unfit. In Lahore, 100% of water samples tested were found contaminated. With Peshawar 77%, Multan 94% and Quetta having 76% water sources contaminated, the data speak all. Due to lack of adequate steps taken by the authorities in this regard, the situation has only worsened, as a 2012 PCRWR survey (also reported in prominent newspapers) declared that around 88% of the functional supply schemes supply unsafe water for drinking. An appalling implication highlighted in the same survey was that in Karachi alone around 10,000 people die every year due to water borne diseases!

The problem is right in front of us. Pakistan’s groundwater has become increasingly contaminated with bacteriological and chemical pollutants, many of which are from raw and untreated sewage polluting the freshwater sources, mostly because of a faulty and badly managed sanitation system that essentially dumps sewage back into the ground. In rural areas, the discharge of domestic sewage directly or indirectly into water bodies, open defecation, agricultural run-off during rainy season containing chemical fertilisers and pesticides and effluents from agro-based industries add to the contamination.

Now having all statistics in front of us, the important point to understand here is that the issue is not an issue of scarcity, but of access! The masses do not have access to clean drinking water which includes not having the capacity to purchase uncontaminated purified water.

The dearth of government filtration plants, their lack of maintenance and long queues of the users simply doesn’t help the cause! The worst thing is that it is affecting sound growth of young children which constitute the future generation of Pakistan. So what does the population do then? According to the Pakistan Social And Living Standards Measurement Survey of 2010-11, the main sources of drinking water are as follows: 32% tap water, 28% hand pump, 27% motor pump, 4% dug well and 9% others.

As always, poverty is the major issue! However, presuming that the masses being aware enough of the water contamination problem are boiling it before use (which in most of the cases they don’t), so does it help? The fact is that boiling water may kill some of pathogens (bacteria and viruses), but it can neither obliterate chemical contamination nor eliminate excessive natural minerals (which varies from source to source). With government’s inability to address the issue, how do we address the issue? Those who can afford to pay the premium have found the solution in the form of commercially available purified (or mineral water). However, the base of the pyramid (BoP) population which constitutes the majority, simply cannot afford to buy it, and that is where the private sector needs to intervene with innovative solutions.

The clean drinking water problem is a truly global issue now and a far bigger and burning than any other matter at hand. The magnitude increases manifold in third world countries where lack of basic sanitation/health facilities vis-à-vis the burgeoning population further complicates the matter. We may place the burden of responsibility on the government, but it’s imperative that the private sector also jumps into the fray and plays its part in addressing the issue. All it requires a bit of innovativeness, structure and political will to ensure that our people, especially the young generation can have access to safe drinking water at the least.

(The writer is the Chief Operating Officer at Pharmagen Healthcare Limited)