January 14, 2009	Wednesday	Muharram 16, 1430

KARACHI, Jan 13: A large number of private hydrants have sprung up in various parts of the city, especially near the Lyari and Malir rivers, and become responsible for intermittent outbreak of water-borne diseases in the metropolis.

Doctors at Civil, Jinnah, Abbasi Shaheed and Sindh government hospitals in Malir and Liaquatabad have told Dawn that a day does not pass without them receiving patients suffering from diarrhoea, typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis-A, nausea, vomiting and other water-borne diseases.

Officials of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board have also confirmed that the number of private hydrants has considerably increased in recent past.

They said that many hydrants in Landhi, Korangi, Baldia, Super Highway, Surjani, Orangi, Shershah and Manghopir were supplying underground water.

But hydrants set up along the Lyari and Malir rivers were the main source of water-borne diseases in the city, they said.

From these rivers over 300 million gallons of the city’s untreated sewage pass daily before falling into the Arabian Sea.

They said they could not rule out the possibility of filthy water seeping into the wells of the hydrants existing in close proximity of the Lyari and Malir rivers.

Although the owners of some of the hydrants existing near the rivers had put up notices saying that their hydrants’ water was only meant for construction purposes and not fit for human consumption, there was no proper check on the tankers drawing water from such hydrants, KWSB officials said.

They said they were not sure whether the tankers were selling water in water-starved localities or supplying it to industrial or other buyers.

They also pointed out that some drivers of tankers drawing water from private hydrants, particularly those located near the rivers, usually parked their vehicles in the vicinity of KWSB hydrants to give a false impression that they were selling KWSB hydrants’ water.

While admitting that most of the private hydrants operating in the city were illegal, KWSB officials told Dawn that such hydrants were not only the source of water-borne diseases, they were also causing a water shortage in their localities where they were based.

They had also managed to get unauthorised connections from KWSB pipelines with the connivance of some utility’s officials, they said.

When asked what measures the KWSB had taken against the mushroom growth of private hydrants, sources said most of the actions taken in the past were nothing but ‘eyewash’.

They said had the officials concerned been sincere in eliminating the illegal hydrants, they would not have let a single illegal hydrant in the city operate.

“As long as half-hearted measures on the part of the KWSB officials continue, illegal hydrants will flourish in the city at the cost of people’s health,” they remarked.