Flood Relief:clean drinking water and PCSIR products

Water gets contaminated in the flooded environment.And the victims are usually out of their homes without any pots and stoves and fuel to be able to boil their water.Disaster aid agencies and NGOs are often asking for donations of water cleaning kits that are imported usually and its supply uncertain.There are several solutions that may be implemented by the agencies:

Household bleach is one of the best disinfectant,approved by such donor agencies as DFID.A few drops per liter and 30 minutes waiting time does an excellent job.NGOs and volunteers should make these supplies available to the flood victims and do some demo and ax plaining.This practice can even be adopted as a routine as well

Another good disinfectant,quite effective and safe,was developed by our PCSIR. It was a pouch containing sand and silver halide.All one was require to do was to put such a pouch in ones water pot or filter ,and drink safe water out of the tap.the product was developed probably in late 80's and was quite visible.Several of my friends and relatives did use it for quite some years when I was weaned on mineral water which i have stopped and have returned to the boiled water at my home.I wonder what happened to the PCSIR product.It is no more visible.It could have proved very handy for the flood victims.Why was it discontinued? May be due to lack of enough demand or having been proved undesirable for some scientific reason.Only PCSIR can tell ? We would like to listen if they are listening us.

Five Reverse Osmosis(RO) plants and three ultra-filtration plants designed and manufactured by EME Karachi garrison of Pakistan Army were dispatched today to various locations in Sindh.Ultra-filtration plants have a capacity of 25,000 liters a day and cost Rs.50,000/- per,while R.O.plants have a capacity of12000 liters a day and a price tag of Rs. 2.5 million.Naturally ROs are quite expensive as the water quality is almost mineral water irrespective of the input quality.We have earlier discussed the case of procuring such plants on rent or lease or outright purchase of even used plants.Some areas permanently require ROs or ultra-filtration plants where these can be dispatched to after the emergency.It is a good idea on the part of EME of Pak Army to have engaged in this kind of endeavor which would have multiple benefits.

Pakistan Drinking Water Policy

Ministry of Environment has prepared a draft policy for drinking water ,which is in the process of government approval.Work on this policy was earlier initiated by the ministry of health almost a decade ago under some UN initiative.Nothing of substance perhaps is initiated in our beloved country unless the impulse comes from the UN system.Finally the policy process was taken over by the Ministry of Environment.It is a good omen and an elaborate policy .

The draft policy announces certain policy principles the most important of which is that access to safe drinking water has been recognized as a basic human right , the existing inequities working against the poor are to be removed and that the drinking water allocation gets precedence over all other uses.The policy also lays out time bound targets related to water access,water treatment etc.It is an elaborate draft, painstakingly prepared,most probably with the assistance of foreign consultants,as is indicated by its relative sophistication ,its emphasis on gender and financial sustainability.

The draft,however,contradicts itself when it deals with financial sustainability and user charges.It should be patently clear that the poor cannot pay.One third of Pakistan is abjectly poor and does not get the required daily nutrition.Most water policies and the associated literature ,I have come across,argue in favor of recouping of O&M costs and not the full cost recovery.If drinking water is a basic human right,water is to be subsidized either through external or cross subsidies, for the poor.There is a strong case for differentiated water rates as is currently being done for other services such as Electricity.I wonder if the policy makers would make the requisite adjustments in this respect.Similarly,one would suspect the role of private sector and private-public partnership,however elegant and fashionable these terms may appear to be.Private sector requires more than adequate return,while in water sector,ROA/ROE are relatively unknown terms.One could however see the role of public-ally subsidized cooperative schemes.

However,drinking water policy coming from the ministry of environment,which is a kind of staff ministry having advisory functions and no implementation resources, may remain a stumbling block.I wonder if the Ministry of Water would have been more appropriate agency for drinking water policy which could have issued it as a part of the broader Water Policy.Perhaps drinking water standards and testing routines ,water and waste water plants standards could be more appropriate for the environment ministry.

If the policy is not to have the fate of just a good document,it has to have ownership of the line ministry concerned which in this case is Ministry of Water and Power.I am not sure whether the delay in announcing the policy might be due to these issues that I am raising here.