Residents of capital city are prone to serious health hazard due to lack of proper disposal of municipal waste has intensified the microbial contamination of drinking water in Islamabad.

No improvement since 2,000 has been seen in water quality of Islamabad, according to latest water quality analysis of major cities of Pakistan-2015-16.

Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) has compiled the analysis report showing that unfit water sources in Islamabad are 68% while 62% in Rawalpindi much better than Islamabad.

In Islamabad, 25 predetermined locations were monitored for the drinking water and found 17 unfit or drinking. Coliforms(bacteria) contamination has been confirmed in 68% water samples.

However, the surface run-off, increased concentrations of nutrients and municipal waste are sources for higher bacterial contamination, according to the report.

Mazhar Hussian, Capital Development Authority (CDA) spokesperson, said CDA is trying to ensure supply of clean drinking water in Islamabad.

He said that in order to supply clean drinking water around 37 filtration plants are installed in the meantime water purification plant is installed at Simly Dam.

According to PCRWR the 13 sources of water from Rawalpindi were analyzed and out of 15 only 2 were found non-functional and 62% were found unsafe for drinking purpose. Nitrate 23% and bacteria 46% contaminated the water. Water quality of Rawalpindi has increased from 27% in 2002 to 43% in 2016.

Dr. Waseem Khawaja, a senior gastroenterologist at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), said, “The number of people suffering from water-borne diseases in Islamabad has significantly increased. Over 50,000 patients suffering from water-borne disease were treated this year since June.”

An official in the water sector expressed critical concern and said, “It is awful and astonishing that quality of drinking water in Islamabad is unsafe than what about the other cities of the country.”

He lamented that unfortunately accessing water quality is not on the priority list of the government.

“Numerous filtration plants in Islamabad are either non-functional or un-cleaned or germ-infested,” he said. Despite ample funding city managers no action towards proper disposal of municipal waste, he said.