Water Quality Assessment

In Pakistan, majority of population is using unsafe drinking water mainly due to bacterial and arsenic contamination. The magnitude of the water quality problems is enormous; however, four number of research projects in different water quality disciplines were undertaken to solve the most confronting issues in the country. The project “Water Quality Assessment of Northern Punjab” has highlighted all water quality issues with remedial measures. The determination of arsenic is quite difficult and requires sophisticated instruments and laborious laboratory practices. Therefore, two low cost methods have been developed to analyze arsenic up to one ppb. In another research project “Innovative Low Cost Arsenic Removal Technologies” were invented to combat the arsenic contamination issue in drinking water. Finally, a research project titled “Cost and Impact Analysis of Preventive and Remedial Measures” was executed because the financial allocations to the water supply sector were reported extremely low as compared to the population growth rate. Therefore, there is a dire need to create convincing policies to increase investments in this neglected sector.