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KARACHI, Aug 28: Two children of Manno Goth, located adjacent to Essa Nagri, died after drinking contaminated water on Sunday. Besides, over 100 other people of the same locality, who had also fallen sick reportedly after drinking contaminated water, were rushed to the Sindh Government Hospital, Liaquatabad.
The hospital’s Additional Medical Superintendent, Dr Yameen, told Dawn that out of the over 100 people who had turned up at the hospital with serious diarrhoeal conditions, 58 had been admitted, four have been referred to Civil Hospital and the JPMC while others had been discharged after providing them necessary treatment.
Confirming that all people who had started coming to the hospital since Saturday were victims of contaminated water, doctors of the hospital said all of them were not only vomiting frequently, but had complaints of loose motion as well.
“The hospital’s children’s ward has been overcrowded with patients suffering from acute diarrhoea, as we have already admitted 28 children against its strength of 24 beds,” he said, adding that five of the patients had been admitted to the hospital’s emergency ward.
An emergency has already been declared in the hospital and doctors, who have been called from their homes, are doing there best in collaboration with the hospital’s medical-aid committee to help provide better treatment to all patients, Dr Yameen added.
The names of both children who died could not be ascertained immediately as they were not brought to the hospital.
KWSB VERSION: The KWSB officials, however, expressed their ignorance about the actual cause of deaths of the children, claiming that since the Manno Goth was a katchi abadi, it neither fell under the jurisdiction of the KWSB nor had any water connection been officially provided to it.
The KWSB’s Chief Engineer (Water Distribution), Asudomal, told Dawn that a team of the department’s officials was sent to the Manno Goth on Sunday on the directives of the DCO Karachi and the KWSB managing director to find out the actual causes of the reported deaths.
He said the team had informed him that almost all unofficial water connections of the locality were substandard and these had been laid down either by area residents on self-help basis or by nazim or councillors of the locality’s union council.
“The sewerage staff has also brought to our knowledge that a number of potable-water PVC pipelines, of poor quality, have been laid there beneath the sewerage lines,” he said, adding that “as a matter of fact the KWSB did not maintain the locality’s water supply system.”
Elaborating, he said that the KWSB’s sewerage staff, which visited the locality on Sunday, had, however, cleaned all manholes, which were chocked.
Besides, one could also see that a number of loose water connections had been provided from pipelines passing either through drains or laid in a zigzag manner in the locality as a result of which, a number of pools of filthy sewerage water had developed in the entire locality, the KWSB official claimed.
