September 01, 2008	Monday	Sha'aban 29, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 31: The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board is supplying unfit drinking water — in most cases infected with E-coli — to at least 12 towns of the city, it has been learnt.

Sources said that as opposed to the normal perception that bottled water was safe and pure, tests had shown that water supplied in many bottled brands was also unfit for human consumption.

According to sources in the city government’s regulation and quality control (health) department, which carries out tests on drinking water to monitor its quality, more than 3,500 samples were collected from different places all over the city from January to July and nearly 2,380 were found fit while about 1,200 were unfit for consumption.

E-coli, found in human faeces, and other bacteria found in drinking water could cause life threatening diseases, including diarrhoea and cholera.

The 12 towns where water was found unfit for human consumption were: Site, Baldia, Lyari, Orangi, Gulshan, Jamshed, Keamari, New Karachi, Liaquatabad, Gadap, Landhi and Korangi.

The sources said that the KWSB brought in the bulk of drinking water from the Indus River, while some water was also brought in from the Hub source.

They said bacteria entered drinking water as the pipelines are rusted and leaking. Besides, water supply and sewerage lines in most parts of the city had outlived their life and developed leakages. Some low-intensity seismic activity, though not felt by people normally, was also going on and it took its toll on the worn-out pipelines.

Another reason was that owing to the water shortages, the pipelines remained empty for a considerable amount of time daily, during which time they developed negative pressure and sucked in the moisture and sewage that had leaked from the nearby, similarly worn-out sewers.

The third reason is rains. When rainwater mixed with sewage and garbage enters the pipelines through the leaks and contaminates the drinking water supply, it makes people vulnerable to numerous health hazards.

The sources said the city government’s health department was vigilant about booking contaminators, but cases were never filed against the KWSB as both work under the city government. The most the health department did was write a letter to the KWSB, informing it that water supply to such and such place was contaminated.

Responding to Dawn’s queries, chief food inspector Abdul Waheed Bhatti said that when the samples of water supplied by the KWSB were found unfit, a letter was written to the board informing it that the water supply to a certain area was unfit. Then the water board checked and took steps to improve the quality or plug the leakages. He said that as the water board was a sister organisation of the CDGK, a case was not registered against it.

Bottled water

The sources said that the situation of expensive bottled water was also not much different. As the companies marketing bottled water had mushroomed, the quality in many cases had been compromised and the people who paid extra money expecting to get better quality were also exposed to threats to their health as many of the brands were found unfit for human consumption.

They said the city government’s health department took six samples of bottled water during July and three of them — 50 per cent — were found containing bacteria and were declared unfit for consumption.

The results of the bottled water tested in June were slightly better as 57 samples were tested and 13 were declared contaminated and unfit for consumption. The health department has filed cases against these bottled water companies in court.

The sources said the department did not expose the names of the errant brands as the officials still remember a distasteful episode in the past, when a famous red sherbet (syrup) brand was found contaminated.

When its name appeared in the media, the company accused the officials of working at the behest of the then governor, whose company also prepared a similar sherbet, and filed a case against the officers for damages. Over a decade since the episode, the officers — though no longer working in the department — were still facing the case in court.

Mr Bhatti, when asked, did not give the names of the contaminated bottled water companies and said that it might hurt their reputation. Besides, he said, the cases were in court.

RQC (health) department chief Dr Abdul Jabbar said that under the West Pakistan Pure Food Laws, 1965, there should be one inspector for a population of 10,000, but here, while the city’s population, conservatively speaking, had crossed 10 million, there were only 14 inspectors, including the chief inspector.

Earlier, he said there used to be a special magistrate for the KMC and the cases used to be decided quickly. But now the cases were sent to normal magistrates, who were already overburdened, so the cases lingered for years.

The staff also had to go to different courts to file and follow the cases, which consumed a lot of time that otherwise could be utilised on checking and monitoring the contaminators in their respective areas.