30% Pakistanis claim to be deprived of drinking water supply: Survey

Islamabad, April 07, 2011 (PPI): Almost 30% Pakistanis claim to be deprived of a public drinking water supply, showed the result of a survey conducted by Gilani Research Foundation/Gallup Pakistan.

Other 44% rural dwellers are deprived of public supply of drinking water whereas only 6% of their urban counterparts share this complaint. Despite having better access to public drinking water than rural Pakistanis, 55% urbanites are dissatisfied with this facility in their area, it said.

In a survey, a nationally representative sample of men and women from across the country were asked the following question: “Please tell us how satisfied you are with the public supply of drinking water in your area.” While 32% claimed to be satisfied with this facility in their area (9% highly satisfied and 23% somewhat satisfied), a total of 37% were dissatisfied with it (19% somewhat dissatisfied and 18% highly dissatisfied). The largest section of the public (30%) however, said that their area lacked access to a public drinking water supply.

A detailed analysis of the data reveals significant differences between the level of satisfaction of urban and rural residents regarding drinking water supply. While 6% urban residents said they were deprived of a public drinking water supply, an overwhelming 44% of rural Pakistanis expressed this complaint. Among those who do have access to this supply, however, it was seen that a much higher percentage of urban residents were dissatisfied with it as compared to rural dwellers. This is so perhaps because in rural areas, the fact of getting access itself becomes a matter of satisfaction and the expectations of service quality are low. Furthermore, in many areas, what is called public supply is a mixture of publicly provided piped water and ground water pumped by a private or semi private facility.

It should be noted that the Hand-pump is a widely used means for obtaining Drinking water in Pakistan, particularly in the province of Punjab. In many places, individually owned or community owned ground-water pumps (manual or electric) are combined with publicly piped water. These distinctions are not necessarily sharp and clear. According to the 1998 Census of Housing in Pakistan, 45% obtained Drinking water through Hand-pumps. Apparently, the situation has substantially changed since then and the data awaits the next Census in the country planned for later in 2011. It is conceivable that public supply of drinking water, notwithstanding high or low quality of supply, has substantially increased since the last census in 1998.

The study was released by Gilani foundation and carried out by Gallup Pakistan, the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International. The recent survey was carried out among a sample of 2718 men and women in rural and urban areas of all four provinces of the country, during March 2011. Error margin is estimated to be approximately + 2-3 per cent at 95% confidence level.