Plan being pursued to set up water testing labs
By Asim Hussain

ISLAMABAD—The government is pursuing a plan to set up water quality testing laboratories in 117 cities of the country at a cost of Rs 5 billion, an official of the Ministry of Science and Technology said Wednesday.
“The laboratories will ensure safe and clean drinking water to people in every nook and corner of the country,” he told APP.
Ten water quality laboratories in different cities have already been established during last fiscal year while construction of further 18 water quality labs would be undertaken during this fiscal year.
Similarly, during this year water quality monitoring of around 2,000 water supply schemes would be completed, he said.
He said out of the ten labs, water quality laboratories at Muzaffarabad, Mansehra, Sargodha, Multan and Sahiwal have already been made functional.
In addition to the above, six existing laboratories at Islamabad, Lahore, Bahawalpur, Tando Jam, Quetta and Peshawar have been strengthened and upgraded during the period, he said.
He said Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) has implemented a project in Cholistan to solve the water problem.
The PCRWR had also developed low cost desalination units for the purification of saline water, he said.
The official said PCRWR collected a total of 25,514 water samples and completed diagnostic tests through different development projects during last one year.
Talking about some projects completed by Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), another department of the Ministry, he said international accreditation of its units at Karachi and Lahore are in process for achieving ISO 17025.