NUST Business School, National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2019 Mar;26(9):8543-8551. doi: 10.1007/s11356-019-04273-4. Epub 2019 Jan 31.
Water pollution is one of the main threats to public health in Pakistan. The watchdogs for drinking water quality are toothless, hence Pakistan's ranking in maintaining water quality standards is 80th out of 122 nations. Despite such alarming situation coupled with violation of various drinking water quality parameters set by WHO, the risk perception of people remains an unfolded area of research. This paper examines the risk perception of household regarding water pollution in Pakistan and its potential effect on human health. In this way, we present a more analytical interpretation of the subject by collecting data from a survey questionnaire from one of the largest urban cities of Pakistan. Conclusions are drawn which stress that education, income, and knowledge of water pollution have higher impact on risk perception. From this position, and with the development of implications for policy, we demonstrate the need of a systematic quantification of various uncertainties that can provide more realistic support for remediation-related decisions to policy makers.
水污染是巴基斯坦公共卫生的主要威胁之一。饮用水质量的监督机构软弱无力，因此巴基斯坦在维护水质标准方面的排名在 122 个国家中位列第 80 位。尽管情况如此令人担忧，而且还违反了世界卫生组织规定的各种饮用水质量参数，但人们的风险认知仍然是一个未被研究的领域。本文研究了巴基斯坦家庭对水污染的风险认知及其对人类健康的潜在影响。通过从巴基斯坦最大的城市之一的问卷调查中收集数据，我们以更具分析性的方式来研究这个主题。研究得出的结论强调，教育、收入和对水污染的了解对风险认知有更大的影响。从这个角度出发，并结合对政策的影响，我们表明需要对各种不确定性进行系统量化，这可以为决策者提供更现实的修复相关决策支持。
