LAHORE: Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar has expressed his concern over sorry state of affairs regarding the provision of hygienic drinl(ing water in Punjab, saying over 1,000 children were daily visiting Children`s Hospital, Lahore, alone with waterborne diseases.

Addressing the inaugural session of 25th Annual International Conference on Family Medicine at a local hotel on Saturday, he said waterborne diseases were enormously increasing burden on state-run health facilities.

Organised by the Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians, the conference was also attended by the Denmark ambassador and senior officials of the health department, besides a good number of doctors.

Mr Sarwar said the Punjab government had launched a project at a cost Rs12 billion for the provision of clean drinking water but more such schemes were need of the hour.

He further said the government should declare education emergency in the province as currently 23pc children were not going to schools.

`We should strengthen primary healthcare system across the province in order to share further burden on the teaching hospitals of Punjab` the governor said, adding that the role of the family physicians would be critical to materialise such schemes.

To curb quackery, he said the government should ensure sale of drugs by the medical stores only on doctors` prescriptions.