Pakistan, April 29 -- In a letter sent to provincial chief secretaries, the chairman of the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has strongly cautioned against dumping untreated wastewater into rivers and canals in order to "safeguard the constitutional right of citizens to clean and sustainable water resources." Whether this will make any impact on a nation notorious for taking everything for granted, and long accustomed to foaming drains and foul-smelling canals, is far from certain.

On paper, the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act explicitly forbids discharges of effluent or waste above the National Environmental Quality Standards, and yet an estimated 34 billion litres of untreated wastewater were entering rivers and drains daily a...