KARACHI, Dec 22: There’s a cluster of houses in Gulshan-i-Iqbal which doesn’t get water every day. But whenever they do receive some, what they get is contaminated water, often unfit for human consumption.
Sometimes the water they get is so contaminated that foul smells emanate from it. Also, one can often see, with naked eyes, black foreign bodies floating about in it.
The residents of the 40 or so houses concerned, situated in Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s block number three, have made several formal complaints to the authorities but no step has so far been taken to rectify the situation.
Consequently, each day brings new trials for the 40 households. Sometimes it so happens that the clean water, safely stored in underground tanks, gets contaminated due to the incoming foul water. In case something like this happens, the households concerned not only have to throw away all the water but also to clean the tanks.
Then there’s the question of making special efforts to get complaints filed with the utility concerned. Several affected people have so far visited, in Civic Centre, the offices of the officials responsible.
However, each of the residents was given the stock reply: “The matter is being looked into. Things have simply not gone beyond this stage.”
Sick and tired of the situation, the 40 families turned to Dawn. Chaudhary Jamil — a resident of A-576/3 — pointed out that a water supply organization should be held responsible for both the quantity and quality of water they supply.
“In case of these 40 families, the water department has failed utterly on both counts. The utility doesn’t supply water in sufficient quantity. And the quality, well, you can judge for yourself the quality,” he said as he pointed towards a bucket of foul-smelling and dirty water.
Dawn visited several houses in the area — Nos A-532/3, A-533/3, A-558/3, A-575/3, A-576/3, A-557/3 and A-580/3. Almost all the residents said that, if lucky, they got water on alternate days. And in case they received some, what they got was contaminated water.
Nihal Moiz, an employee of Pakistan Television Corporation, said: “This water is nothing but sewage”. He said he and his family-members were specially worried because they offered prayers regularly.
Other residents said every household of the area was worried, not just one or two. “It’s plain that this water cannot be consumed. Whosoever will use this water will do so at his own peril,” said Muzaffar Baig.
Sabir H. Qureshi told Dawn that the households of the area had decided to submit samples of the foul water to a reputable testing facility to determine the exact level of contamination.
Chaudhary Jamil was of the view that sewage regularly got mixed with potable water at a place, near Karachi University campus, where the water mains had burst twice recently. “Both the sewage line and water line pass through this area. And it’s this place where sewerage water enters the water lines.”
