KARACHI: EPA asked to test water as disease subsides
By Nizamuddin Siddiqui
KARACHI, July 11: The Environment Protection Agency was directed by the chief secretary of Sindh on Friday to take samples from all over the city and test them to determine if the water being supplied was fit for use.
Dr Mutawakkal Kazi called for an integrated strategy to ensure that pollution-free water was supplied to the people. During a high-level meeting, the chief secretary said the PCSIR’s services could be acquired in this regard.
According to a well-placed source, the meeting was attended, among others, by the Environment Secretary Aslam Sanjrani, DCO of Karachi Mir Hussain Ali and Advocate General of Sindh Qazi Khalid Ali.
In a related development, the adviser to the chief minister on environment, Faisal Malik Gabol, set up a two-member committee for collecting water samples from the localities which were hit by a water-borne disease on Wednesday and Thursday. The samples would be tested at a reputed laboratory.
The committee comprising senior officials of the Environmental Protection Agency were asked to present a detailed report on the causes of the recent deaths in Gadap Town.
Expressing concern over the increasing number of deaths owing to consumption of polluted water, he directed the EPA to launch a campaign aimed at creating awareness among citizens about diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases.
Meanwhile, the outbreak of gastro-enteritis which hit some areas of the Gadap Town, after claiming four lives, appeared to have come under control on Friday.
Even though more than a hundred people reported to the rural health centre situated in an affected village on Friday, no one was in a critical condition. And a relief camp established with the collaboration of the Sindh police in another village was no more.
Dr Abdul Waheed Panhwar, the medical superintendent of the RHC in Old Thano Village, told Dawn that the residents of the area had become sensitive to gastro-enteritis symptoms. “That is why, any person who starts vomiting or complaints of pain in the abdomen is immediately brought to us,” he said.
“This is the main reason why so many persons were brought to us. Otherwise the situation seems to be better now.” Dr Panhwar said in all, 38 females and 54 males of all ages had been brought to the RHC.
In response to a question, he said 29 people had been admitted to the RHC while six were referred to other hospitals such as the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.
The residents had started consuming water after boiling it, said Dr Panhwar. “This is why the disease has subsided.” He claimed that some of the people had started using alternative sources of water.
Asghar Hussein, an AIG, said the relief camp which was established by the Sindh police in the Bhiroo Goth on Wednesday, was no longer there. He said very few people had been taken to the relief camp on Thursday night.
“That’s why we decided to remove the camp.”
The residents of the affected area told Dawn that very few remedial steps had been taken by the authorities. Calling Dawn’s offices on Friday they said the epidemic had largely been stopped in its tracks by the people themselves.
Nazar Baloch said the people who had fallen sick were no doubt treated by the doctors in the RHC in Old Thano Village. “It’s true that the doctors of the health department worked round the clock to treat the people.”
However, the main reason for the outbreak was the consumption of polluted water. “So, the situation was brought under control only after we stopped using the water being supplied through the pipes.”
He said the people had started boiling water before consuming it. Announcements were being made from the mosques in this regard.
