‘84% of Pak population lacks access to safe drinking water’

islamabad — Eighty-four per cent of the population does not have access to safe drinking water in a country where commercial banks posted windfall profits exceeding Rs475 billion in three years, the Senate was told on Tuesday, reports Dawn online.

Quoting a study, Provision of Safe Drinking Water, conducted by the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Minister for Science and Technology Rana Tanvir Hussain said only 72pc of water supply schemes were found to be functional, and 84pc of those had supplied water that was not fit for consumption.

The water from 14pc of water supply sources in Sindh and Punjab were found to be heavily contaminated with arsenic, well above the permissible limit of 50 parts per billion, Rana Tanvir revealed. He said Rs279 million had been spent on the project — Provision of Safe Drinking Water — over the past four years.

As part of the project, six regional water quality laboratories, under the PCRWR, had been upgraded and 17 new water quality testing laboratories had been established at the district level.

Funds were also used on the capacity building of 3,000 professionals associated with water supply agencies, Rana Tanvir said.

Law Minister Zahid Hamid informed the Senate that commercial banks in the country had earned profits exceeding Rs472 billion in the last three years.

The data shared with the senators showed an incremental rise in profits over three years — Rs115 billion in 2013, Rs164 billion in 2014 and Rs193 billion in 2015.

Of the total profit earned by commercial banks in three years, four banks had earned profits exceeding Rs270 billion. At the top is the Habib Bank Limited with a profit of Rs88 billion, followed by MCB with Rs71 billion, the United Bank Limited with Rs66 billion and the Allied Bank Limited with Rs44.77 billion. The First Women Bank and the SME Bank were the only two banks that had suffered losses in three years.

The Senate took up the issue of the acquittals of culprits involved in torching Christians’ homes in Lahore.