As the reminder by UAF seminar participants shows, the problem remains largely unaddressed; in fact it is growing with growing industrial activity. Effluents are casually discharged into stagnant ponds from where they seep down into the underground aquifers, or are dumped into streams, canals, rivers and lakes, damaging human health and destroying irreplaceable flora and fauna. Even the Manchar Lake, Asia's largest fresh water lake, supplying drinking water to its adjoining areas and cities from Dadu to Sehwan, Hyderabad and Karachi has not been spared. Only after a huge civil society outcry over distressing levels of pollution an effort is under way to stop release of industrial waste and sewage into it. There are a countless other similar examples such as Rawalpindi's Lye Nalah, once a fresh water stream, which is now a heavily polluted dirty water channel. This must not be allowed to go on forever. The environment ministries both at the Centre and in the provinces ought to recognise the problem for what it is and address it. The bigger industries of course can fend for themselves; the others ought to be pushed to set up common facilities for treatment and discharge of hazardous effluents.
It was also pointed out at the seminar that a key socio-economic challenge is to stop mismanagement of the water resource. That should be of serious concern to those in charge of planning and implementing development policies given that Pakistan is a water-scarce country facing a grave impending threat of water shortages, and consequently food security. So far, the attitude seems not to worry about something that has not happened yet even though the climate change has already started manifesting itself in recurring floods and altering weather patterns which, experts warn, will lead to persistent droughts. Before it is too late, all concerned need to get their act together and undertake well thought-out strategies to conserve water and promote its judicious use by domestic consumers as well as farming communities.