SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS OF SUSTAINABLE DRINKING WATER MANAGEMENT IN RURAL PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

The water supply and sanitation sector has always been overlooked in the comparison to the other sectors both in the sense of budgetary allocation, in sustainability of development projects as well as execution of drinking water supply, sanitation schemes and provision of potable water strategies. The drinking water and sanitation system are closely linked with each other. The Government of Pakistan established the National Drinking Water Policy in September 2009, with the goal of providing clean and safe drinking water to the entire Pakistani population by 2025, including the poor and vulnerable, at a reasonable rate. The National Sanitation Policy of Pakistan was prepared in 2016, but recently conditions are adverse.  In the Pakistan the sewerage systems are not only properly managed, out lived, inappropriate and leakages problems of sewer pipelines with major part of un-served population but also contribute towards water systems contamination and ground water as well as surface water contamination. The water for domestic utilization and wastewater of factories are mostly disposed of into rivers, streams and sometimes into water canals without any treatment of water in most of the conditions. There is also a conceptual issue with the traditional sewer systems due to leakages and seepage of sewage water is mixing in underground water as well as in food stuff. Some organic, inorganic elements and micronutrients are mixed up in the freshwater reservoir to a great extent that separation of the contaminant’s elements and treatment of water for reusing purpose becomes complicated not only in the sense of technically but also economically unfeasible. Secondly, the micro-nutrients are mostly washed away with domestic and factories wastewater as well as from storm water, mixed into freshwater channels.

Keywords: Water Supply, Sustainable, contamination, ground water, Water Pollution, wastewater, Fresh Water. Safe Water