29 May 2004	Saturday	09 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

ISLAMABAD, May 28: Multiple pollutants were found in the drinking water supplied to Hyderabad, showed test reports carried out by the local government department and the Sindh Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).

The test results showed high salinity level and the toxic contamination in drinking water that played havoc with people resulting in 15 deaths and illness to hundreds of others during the past two weeks.

Sepa checked Aral Wah canal water and Sardar D-Baloch Camp water and found a high level of contamination in terms of Chloride, turbidity, TDS, COD and Ammonia. The results revealed up to 10 times and in some cases even higher pollutants in the drinking water as compared to WHO standards of acceptable levels.

The level of TDS was recorded at 308 milligram per litre in Aral Wah canal water and 634 mg/litre in the Sardar D-Baloch Camp water. The WHO standard is 10 mg/litre. WHO has set the standard for coliform organisms presence in drinking water at negative, but in Hyderabad case this contamination level was 33/100ml in samples taken from Wah Canal and 56/100ml in samples taken from Sardar D-Baloch Camp.

The level of Chloride as prescribed by WHO is 200 to 600 mg/litre, but in Hyderabad its level has been recorded at 1,056 mg/litre in Aral Wah Canal water and 899 mg/litre in D-Baloch Camp water.

Ammonia level was recorded at 1.13 mg/litre in Aral Wah Canal water and 6.7 mg/litre in Sardar D-Baloch Camp water. Prescribed Ammonia level is 0.1-0.5 mg/litre. Aral Wah Canal links Manchhar Lake to Indus river and Sardar D-Baloch Camp is a point at Indus about one kilometre from the entry of Aral Wah into Indus.

LOCAL GOVT TESTS: The chemical analysis report of samples collected from four localities in the city and tested by the Local Government Department Research Laboratory revealed that the ratio of conductivity (salinity) in them was higher than the WHO standards.

WHO standards of affordable conductivity in drinking water has been set at less than 1,000 micro siemens/centimetre but tests showed the conductivity level in water supplied to Hyderabad ranged from 1,960 to 2,570 micro siemens/ centimetre.

Similarly, the ratio of chloride in those samples was almost double to the WHO standards. Samples collected from Jamshoro, Thandi Sarak, Latifabad No12 showed that the water in these localities was injurious to public health. -APP