Deaths due to gastroenteritis, acute diarrhoea or other water-borne illnesses rise each year during the summer, as water consumption increases, scarcity worsens and rains contribute to flooded sewage channels which often flow into clean water supplies.

Since April this year, at least 19 people are reported to have died of gastroenteritis in the southern province of Sindh, which faces an acute water shortage. At least three other deaths have been reported in other parts of the country and at least 6,000 people have been admitted to hospitals countrywide suffering from this condition. Japanese and US experts are currently investigating high arsenic levels in major cities in the Punjab, including Lahore and Faisalabad, the provinces’ second largest city with a population of 2.6 million people.

In the summer of 2006, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and its local partners began a programme in Rahim Yar Khan District in the southern Punjab to identify water sources laced with arsenic and raise awareness about its presence. Arsenic is thought to leach into water from rocks and soil in many areas of the Punjab.

Since the mid-1990s, there has also been concern about bone deformities caused by contaminated water. In the village of Kalalanwala on the outskirts of Lahore, dozens of children were found with spinal and joint problems in 1998. The problem, which has also been seen in other parts of the Punjab, has been blamed on excessive fluoride in the ground water.

Experts have also warned that the leaching of pesticides and industrial