KARACHI, March 15: Speakers at a seminar here on Monday expressed concern over the quality of water being supplied to the city.
They urged the relevant authorities to ensure that parameters laid down by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the purity of potable water were fully adopted.
The speakers also stressed the need for evolving a regular and full-proof method to ensure that the drinking water was free from E-coli and coliform responsible for various water-borne and other diseases.
It was also stressed that arrangements be made for treatment of a huge quantity of toxic water being flushed into the Arabian Sea only to devastate marine life and cause pollution in the coastal areas of the city.
The seminar, titled Drinking Water - A Life Saver or Threat, was organized by a multinational company in collaboration with the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board at a local hotel.
Those spoke at the seminar included by Secretary of the Sindh Environment and Alternative Energy Department Shujaat Ali Qarni, MD of the KWSB Brig Asif Ghazali, Dean of the Baqai University's Faculty of Health Dr Altaf Khan and Dr Fahim of the Alamgir Welfare Trust.
City Nazim Niamatullah Khan was the chief guest whereas the guest speakers from Germany were Wolfgang Schmidt, Gunter Decker and J. Koenig. Presenting a gloomy picture of the quality of water, Niamatullah Khan said that unfortunately, more than 10,000 people in the city die annually of renal infection due to the polluted drinking water.
More than 60 per cent deaths of infants in the country are caused by water-borne diseases while every fifth citizen suffers from illness a disease caused by polluted water.
He deplored that the city had been built without a master plan, and added that 70 per cent population of its 538 kutchi abadis were deprived of sewerage facility.
He, however, hoped that the CDGK and the KWSB would make efforts to arrange for the recycling of 75 per cent waste water to make it reusable for agricultural and industrial purposes.
He expressed optimism that he would soon be able to convince certain foreign investors to set up a desalination plant in the city. The city nazim called upon private sector and multinationals to come forward and contribute to controlling water pollution through their investment, experience and expertise.
He indicated that out of the Rs29 billion package announced by President Musharraf for Karachi, more than Rs11 billion had been earmarked for water and sewerage projects.
Brig Asif Ghazali claimed that the water provided by the KWSB remained perfectly fit for human consumption but used to get contaminated or polluted usually when pipelines were damaged for illegal connections.
He revealed that two filter plants, one each being set up at Hub and Indus, would start functioning shortly following which Karachiites would be able to receive another 100mgd filtered water.
He pointed out that Karachi was getting less than 450mgd as against its actual requirement of 600mgd. He also noted that 60 per cent of the city's sewage was being flushed into the sea untreated.
Mr Wolfgang Schmidt emphasized the need for protecting water sources from contamination by human and animal waste. While quality of drinking water is considered an important issue in developed countries, the case is reverse in developing ones and, as such, the mortality rate, particularly that of infant, in water borne diseases is very high.
Quoting WHO figures, he said that 10 million people die from water-borne diseases in developing countries every year. Mr Schmidt said that unfortunately public health decision-makers in the developing countries were not well aware of the gravity of the situation.
Even if they were, the lack of good management and professionalism, together with financial constraints, contributed significantly to the water-borne health risks, he added.
Stressing the need for chalking out a comprehensive plan to meet the human needs of safe drinking water and to prevent the prevalence of all water borne diseases, he recommended that health education should include subjects of water quality, safety and associated hazards.
He also recommended that drinking water supply should be continuous and to prevent cross-contamination, water pipelines should not pass along or across the sewerage lines.
Presenting his paper on parameters necessary to check drinking water, Mr Gunter Decker suggested that in a city like Karachi, laboratories should be involved in testing the quality of drinking water.
Though the international drinking water regulation contains a lot of approximate values and limiting values, these levels must be monitored according to the local regulation. Normally, in the international regulations nothing is mentioned that the monitoring must be done by using standard methods such as AA, ICP, Ion chromatographic, etc.
Mr Decker, however, advocated use of alternative test procedures, saying that this was regularly being done around the world. Shujaat Ali Qarni said that though the quality of water as claimed by authorities concerned was 'excellent', thousands of people brought to the Sindh government hospitals were found suffering from water-borne diseases.
"In fact, our priorities have changed... every body is involved in cricket fever and in some other activities... yet we are least concerned about the quality of water we drink."
Dr Altaf Khan regretted that over 300 million gallons of untreated water going into sea daily was not only leaving harmful effects on our marine life but also affecting badly the health of the population consuming the seafood.
Dr Fahim disclosed that 87 per cent of tap water samples collected from 18 different localities of Karachi were found unsatisfactory for drinking purpose. He said that since all the samples contained E-coli, streptococci and entercocci.
One could imagine what havoc the water could play with the health of patient undergoing a dialysis, he wondered. Keeping his comments reserved about the filtration units and bottled water, he urged people to get them examined before consumption.
