KARACHI: Supply of contaminated water in PECHS - Gastro-enteritis cases on the rise
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 15: A number of people, particularly children, have become victim of typhoid, gastroenteritis and other diseases, owing to continuous supply of contaminated water
, emitting foul smell, in PECHS Block 2.
Residents of the affected locality deplored that although various houses, situated on street Nos 49 and 50 (starting from A to H) were being supplied filthy water for the last two months, the KWSB officials concerned have taken no measures to rectify the fault responsible for contaminated water despite a number of complaints lodged with them.
In support of their claim that a number of people had already become victim of dirty water, they have provided a certificate issued by a doctor (Dr Asim H Kaikaus) which inter alia states:" It is to certify that for the last two months, there has been contaminated supply of drinking water in street Nos 49 and 50 (from House No A to H), Block 2 PECHS with sewerage water due to which several cases of typhoid, gastroenteritis and hepatitis A and E, have been reported to my and nearby clinics."
If this contamination is not stopped, it may lead to big mishap, the doctor said. "We have also brought the lingering issue of contaminated water to the notice of Jamshed Town's Union Council No 6 Nazim but we are being told that they can neither repair, nor replace the pipeline owing to paucity of funds," an elderly person of the locality regretted.
Suspecting that sewage might be seeping into their potable water pipeline as it was laid down some 40 years back and thus had become obsolete, residents demanded of the city Nazim and the KWSB managing director to direct the officials concerned to immediately help resolve the issue of contaminated water, or else some serious abdomen diseases might breakout in their localities in an epidemic form.
OPEN MANHOLES: The KWSB's managing director's recent instructions concerning placement of covers on manholes continues to be flouted although monsoon season had already set in.
A visit to different parts of the city would show that a number of manholes are still without covers and the residents of such localities apprehend that in the case of heavy rains, not only the pedestrians and children but motorcyclists might become victim to open manholes.
According to residents of Saudia Colony's sectors 8-A, 8-B and 9, a number of manholes are either broken or without covers and garbage makes its way into manholes. They feared that sewerage lines, cleaned recently, might again get chocked due to missing covers.
Moreover, open manholes can also be spotted near Federal B' Area's Water pump traffic intersection, Gulshan-i-Iqbal's Block 13-D/1, near Friends Garden apartment building, Ranchorre Line, M R Keyani Road, besides a wide water chamber, situated in the middle of a major road which links Tariq Road with Khalid Bin Waleed Road.
The KWSB officials concerned, on the one hand, have taken no measures to place covers on manholes and, on the other, have not filled up the sites which they had dug up for repairing leaking pipelines.
For instance, the KWSB officials who had dug up a portion of a service road, near Hassan Square traffic intersection about two months back to undertake repairing of a leaking pipeline, have not bothered to fill up the ditch, causing damage to vehicles.
