ISLAMABAD, March 20: A civic rights body claims that the government's "drinking water for all" policy was nothing more than a political slogan. In a statement issued on the eve of the World Water Day, being observed on Wednesday, the Sungi Development Foundation said the government had failed to implement even its pilot project, initiated in 2004-05, to install water filtration plants in 509 tehsils, what to say of its more ambitious promise that 6,035 union councils will have such plants by the end of 2007.

Instead of emphasising on "makeshift arrangements", the government should initiate "concrete and sustainable steps and policies" to achieve the objectives, said the rights-based civil society organization.

Sungi termed the Clean Drinking Water for All (CDWA) programme "an ad hoc arrangement", pointing out that of the 327 filtration plants installed under the pilot project so far, only 251 were actually functioning. With their capacity of filtering up to 2,000 gallons of water per hour, the plants could not cover more than 20 per cent of the population of the country. That negates the government's promise it would provide clean water to all.

Sungi noted that the drinking water programme PC-1 had been revised four times, taking the cost from Rs8.5 billion to Rs15 billion. "Without addressing problems like the slow pace of work, allowing political interference in the programme while ignoring the local community in its implementation, providing drinking water to all would remain an uphill task," it added.

It said revising the programme with the help of community and civil society and its management and monitoring by the local and provincial governments together was the only solution to finish the programme by 2010, the target year. "Transparency and accountability of the project, meeting quality standards set by international organizations, awareness campaign and public notices at the plant regarding performance and maintenance is also required in order to make the programme sustainable," it said.

Sungi stressed that in dealing with the limited water resources, it was essential to address equity and rights, cultural and ethical issues. It noted that the government intended to expand the scope of the safe drinking water programme to 28,000 villages having 1,000 or more inhabitants