Daneen Shabbir
Islamabad: For millions of Pakistanis, turning on a tap is supposed to be the simplest act of daily life. Fill a glass, drink, and move on.
But behind that apparently ordinary act lies a growing public-health challenge, water may be available, yet it may not be safe.
Pakistan’s water crisis is often discussed in terms of scarcity, declining groundwater level and increasing demand. But there is another crisis unfolding alongside it: contamination.
UNICEF estimates that around 70 percent of households in Pakistan still drink bacterially-contaminated water. The organisation also estimates that poor water and sanitation contribute to the deaths of around 53,000 Pakistani children under five every year from diarrhoeal disease.
As the old saying goes, “water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium”.
In a country like Pakistan where both Hepatitis A and E are water-borne diseases, and with the National Institute of Health identifying contaminated water and inadequate sanitation as key transmission risks, voices calling for improving water-supply systems to prevent sewage contamination are getting louder.
The seriousness of the situation can be gauged from the fact that between 14% to 26% of the apparently healthy pediatric population has been found exposed to Hepatitis E.
This figure points to a stark reality: clean water is not simply an environmental or infrastructural issue, it is a question of public health, child survival and economic productivity.
Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources, or PCRWR, identifies a wide range of potential contaminants, including bacteria, E. coli, arsenic, fluoride, nitrates, iron, excessive dissolved solids and other chemicals.
Its national monitoring programme has also found that contamination is not confined to one province or one type of water source.
PCRWR’s assessment of drinking-water sources across 29 cities found 61% of monitored sources unsafe for drinking, with only 39% classified as safe. The major problems included microbiological contamination, total dissolved solids, iron, hardness, turbidity, chlorides, arsenic, nitrates and fluoride.
Even though the figures vary considerably from place to place, the message remains the same: water that looks clear is not a defining factor of its purity.
Even bottled water is not automatically safe as many claim. According to PCRWR’s quarterly monitoring programme, 763 bottled and mineral-water samples that were examined between July 2023 and June 2024, 673 met the applicable safety standards, while more than 80 were classified as unsafe because of contamination.
That means approximately 12% of the tested samples were unsafe.
The finding underlines an important principle: the word “filtered”, “mineral” or “bottled” should not automatically be a go-ahead for purification.
Regular independent testing, enforcement of national standards and transparent publication of results are essential.
There is no single source for contamination. PCRWR identifies broken or leaking water and sewerage pipelines, cross-connections between water and sewerage systems, leaking underground and overhead tanks, malfunctioning filtration plants and poor maintenance as potential causes of microbial contamination.
Groundwater can also acquire naturally occurring contaminants as it moves through soil and rock. At the same time, agriculture, industry and urban waste can introduce chemicals, pesticides and heavy metals into water sources.
This means installing a filtration plant is only one part of the solution.
A purification plant without proper maintenance, testing and monitoring can eventually become another weak link in the water-supply chain.
Now the real question emerges: what can actually make water safe?
The first step must always be testing the water.
PCRWR recommends testing for microbiological contamination. Once the contaminant is identified, treatment can be selected accordingly.
For microbiological contamination, boiling, chlorination, ultraviolet treatment and other appropriate disinfection methods can be effective.
PCRWR advises that boiling can destroy potential pathogens and recommends boiling water continuously for approximately three to four minutes, followed by safe storage. Chlorination is another established method, provided it is correctly dosed and adequate contact time is allowed. Even though these methods can easily be carried out by ordinary households, boiling or chlorination should not be presented as a universal solution.
If the problem is arsenic, fluoride, excessive salts or certain heavy metals, a different treatment technology may be required.
PCRWR notes that activated-carbon filtration combined with reverse osmosis can help remove TDS, turbidity and various heavy metals, while ultraviolet treatment can be used to kill waterborne bacteria.
The lesson is simple: Test first, then trust.
PCRWR stresses the importance of monitoring and reports that its National Water Quality Monitoring Programme has expanded from 24 cities to 70 cities by 2025.
Every major water-supply scheme should have regular laboratory testing, public disclosure of water-quality results, routine cleaning and maintenance of filtration plants.
But ultimately, a household is the final line of defence. Drinking water should be kept in clean, covered, food-grade containers which should be regularly washed and sanitised.
Pakistan needs a comprehensive water-quality strategy linking source protection, treatment, distribution, testing, regulation and public awareness. And, above all citizens should have easy access to affordable water-testing services and reliable information about treatment options.
