04 July 2004	Sunday	15 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, July 3: It is the government's responsibility to provide clean potable water to its citizens as it was impossible for the common man to boil it properly and make it safe for drinking, says a report.

The report was prepared by a three member fact finding team, comprising Shadab Murtaza, Ahmad Reza and Akhtar Baloch, of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

The HRCP team was sent to Hyderabad, the city worst-affected by the supply of polluted water that led to approximately 50 reported deaths and caused hundreds of people to fall sick.

The HRCP's report stressed the need for treating water from the Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) before it was allowed to enter the Manchhar Lake besides calling for the setting up of a treatment and disposal system of polluted water.

The report pointed out that the Water and Sanitation Agency's laboratory at its Hyderabad filter plant did not have proper equipment to test the water and called for providing the required facilities immediately, saying it would enable it to function properly.

The team learnt after meeting various stakeholders that there was no systematic plan for the disposal or treatment of polluted water entering the Manchhar Lake from the RBOD and it was a common practice to release contaminated water into the River Indus so that it could be diluted and reused.

The report stated that contaminated water was routinely released in the river without informing the people concerned despite the laboratory reports from various sources, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Liaquat Medical College that indicated that the water was contaminated and poisonous.

It stated that the people who were actually responsible for the health crisis had been spared while others were made scapegoats, adding that even the people mentioned in the FIR had been spared by the police.

The report also mentioned about documents, including a few released by Wasa, in which the agency had pointed out that water that was being supplied to it showed that it contained some substances that allowed twice as much electrical conductivity besides containing a concentration of total dissolved solids and chlorides that was more than twice the safe levels prescribed by the World Health Organization.

The Wasa, in its communications to the Sindh Irrigation Department and the Hyderabad Development Authority, had mentioned that the "taste of drinking water has become salty", and that sufficient quantity of fresh water be released through Sukkur Barrage so that "the people of Hyderabad could be guarded against the out-break of diseases which is likely to occur on account of using such unfit water."

However, the sources said, unfit water was supplied for consumption in Hyderabad for many days leading to many deaths besides causing a large number of people to fall sick. Many other adjoining areas, including smaller towns, also received contaminated water but probably owing to a lack of awareness and proper medical facilities, the crisis was not adequately reported from these areas.