Committed to Improving Water Quality in Pakistan
Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-Water) announced on June 23 that it has signed a project management consultant (PMC) contract with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) on advancing Pakistan's overall water quality management capacity.
K-Water will work together with Mine Reclamation Corp. of Korea in this project.
The world's fifth most populous country, Pakistan is suffering a severe shortage of water due to abnormal weather caused by climate change, population growth and urbanization.
In particular, underground water which most of the people are using as drinking water is exposed to various harmful pollutants that cause waterborne diseases.
Accordingly, the Pakistani government is making various efforts under the National Development Plan (NDP) to elevate the nation’s safe drinking water supply rate. But it significantly lacks infrastructure and human resources needed to improve water quality. Consequently, international cooperation is urgently needed.
K-Water plans to comprehensively improve Pakistan's water quality management capabilities by improving laws, systems, infrastructure and fostering experts in cooperation with Mine Reclamation Corp.
The highlights of the plan include improving the Pakistani government’s ability to supply safe and clean drinking water, drawing up a plan to improve Pakistan’s law, institutions and administrative system, expanding infrastructure by donating equipment and materials to 46 water quality analysis laboratories and establishing a standard operating program (SOP), and educating and training to improve its expertise in policies and water quality analysis.
The project will be carried out in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa until 2024, and Pakistan's Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) will provide support and coordination for the project.
Meanwhile, K-Water has been carrying out active water management cooperation projects in Pakistan, including the Partrind hydropowe project. K-Water has built a 147 MW hydropower plant to ease an electric power shortage in Pakistan. The plant started commercial power generation in November 2017 after about five years of construction.