The sources of water supply are tube wells, klarezes wells, springs and hand pumps. The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) is responsible for supplying potable water to the population. A total of 26 tube wells have been commissioned under 20 water supply schemes by PHE Department, the total number of beneficiaries of these schemes being 71,950. Besides there are 26 wells with 58,600 beneficiaries. The number of beneficiaries from 4 springs is 5,500. There are 23,850 beneficiaries who take water from hand pumps; 159 hand pumps were installed under the water supply and sanitation scheme of local government. The total number of people supplied with potable water under the various schemes is 159,900 out of the total population of 562,387. The rest is managed by the people themselves. It means that only 28% of the population is supplied with potable water by government. According to the 1981 census report only 10.6% of the population had access to potable water.

Source: PHED, GoB - Quetta; Executive Engineer PHE - Loralai

Shortage of potable water is one of the major problems in the district. Most sources of drinking water are of questionable quality and the access to them is often difficult. Women are generally responsible for fetching water. The distances they have to cover (on foot or by primitive means of transportation), pose a considerable burden in terms of time and effort of their daily work load. In addition, the poor quality of the water collected causes many water borne diseases. The water is often contaminated and the lack of preventive measures adds to bad health conditions. In rural areas many people continue to depend on springs, streams, ponds, karezes and tube wells. The coverage of piped water supply is limited to a few urban areas only.

 All the water supply schemes are run by PHE Department except the hand pumps which were supplied through local government. Seven water supply schemes have already been completed and handed over to the community for operation and maintenance. There are an Executive Engineer, two Sub-Divisional Officers and five Sub-Engineers and various support staff working in the district’s Public Health Engineering Department.

 Although the groundwater potential is not known and has not been fully surveyed, the Nari River Basin potential has been estimated at 120 cusecs. Out of this, 35 cusecs have already been exploited, the remaining 85 cusecs are available for future exploitation. A balance has to be stricken between recharge and discharge. For sustainable growth of horticulture and agriculture this balance has to be maintained.

 Evaluation of the various water supply sources in terms of acceptable service standard, quality, quantity, access, and reliability is difficult, but it is generally supposed that both the public and private water schemes meet minimal criteria for safe and adequate drinking water. Water obtained from karezes is judged to be of better quality than surface water, except in cases where the source is not properly protected. The same applies to the point in its trajectory where it flows into surface canals and therefore is open to the same sort of contamination as surface water. Water obtained from open surface wells may be inadequate in terms of quantity, quality, proximity, or reliability, while water from canals and ponds is judged unacceptable for human consumption unless treated, which is rarely the case.

 The sanitation coverage is very low and limited to urban areas only. The different estimates for sanitation coverage made by various agencies vary from 2 to 7 percent in rural areas. In urban areas the figure is 30%. The people in rural areas use open fields for defecation, women use open surface latrines within the domestic compound. The presence of animals within the households worsens the sanitary condition.

 The local government with the assistance of the Dutch government and UNICEF has constructed 990 latrines in the whole district. Due to low levels of education, cultural attitude, government’s and donors’ lack of interest the expansion of sanitation schemes had been minimal and their impact negligible.

 People usually give priority to water supply over sanitation, thus unless the water supply problem is resolved first, sanitation cannot be improved.

 The situation in urban areas is equally distressing with unsanitory conditions creating a major public health problem. Cleaning is normally done by sweepers engaged by the household who is also responsible for taking out the garbage. The poor people do domestic refuse collection themselves. Disposal methods include dumping in open fields, placing in municipal bins and in drains.

There is one Executive Engineer in Public Health Engineering Department for Loralai Division. There are two Sub-Divisional Officers, one each for Loralai Sub-Division and Duki Sub-Division. Four Sub-Engineers are working in the district, two each for Loralai and Duki Sub-Division. One Divisional Accounts Officer, one Divisional Head Draftsman, and 188 other support staff is working in Loralai district.

 The Department works for the construction, operation and maintenance of water supply schemes. After successful completion of the schemes they are handed over to the community. From that moment onwards, it becomes the responsibility of the community to operate and maintain the water supply schemes.

 It also works for the exploitation of more water resources. The Department provides sewerage and solid waste disposal facilities and imposes charges for water and sanitation facilities in the district.

Legend: - no involvement

 Due to low precipitation, the sources of water are limited. The main source is underground water, since there is no source of surface water in the district. The trend is to install more tube wells now that the karezes are drying up and the water table is going down. Thus the scarcity of surface water and the limited capacity of the underground water resources stand as basic limiting factors in expanding water supply provision in the district.

The other major constraints are institutional weaknesses, lack of adequate planning, inappropriate choice of technologies and lack of involvement of communities and women. Women are mostly involved in fetching water and large amounts of their time and energy are being spent in this activity.

 The coverage of sanitation is very low and there is no awareness of the need for sanitation among the rural population.

 One of the causes of the desertification in the province is that the extraction rates of water are usually higher then the recharge. The mechanised irrigation has worsened the situation by rapidly lowering the groundwater levels.

 Many diseases are spread through contaminated water, with no preventive measures being taken for the supply of potable water. The allocation of funds for sanitation is negligible.

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