May 24, 2017
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday demanded additional funds in the budget to improve water scarcity.
Government should improve water availability in urban and rural areas using all available means including serious steps to conserve water by discouraging irresponsible use, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that access to clean drinking water is a basic right but according to an estimate around sixteen million people lacks access to it due to water scarcity and irresponsible usage.
He said that some elements have used the situation to mint money from masses resulting in dozens of illegal units in every city providing contaminated bottled water in the name of clean water while there is no check on them.
Majority of the people cannot afford to buy clean water putting them on the mercy of dirty water resulting in serious health problems, he noted.
The business leader said that dependence on ground water has touched dangerous proportions with sixty percent people in urban areas and seventy percent in rural areas depending on it resulting in fast depletion of this resource.
He said that water supply system is dysfunctional in many cities which has compelled people extract ground water while there is no law regarding this unchecked practice.
Some cities have filtration plants managed by the government departments’ majority of whom remains out of order, he said, adding that filtration plants should be established in all the cities and towns to save lives of the people.
