FAISALABAD: Vendors continue to use the notorious blue cans to sell potable water without check by the authorities concerned.

The large cans are meant to store chemicals to be used by industries and there is a ban on their use for any other purpose. What makes the situation worse is water is filled in these cans in unhygienic conditions around the canal.

A vendor justifies his business by saying he has been selling water for years and no one ever complained about any issue.

A group of Punjab Medical College students, Abdur Rehman, Mohammad Junaid, Abdul Samad Rao, Mohammad Ahmad and Faizan Javed, had recently prepared a report highlighting the fact that blue cans were being openly used to sell water. “A can costs Rs10 to 15 and these are distributed to people at their doorsteps,” said the report.

As for refilling of cans, it noted: “No care is being taken during refilling of cans and distribution.”

That unsafe drinking water can cause diseases like diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera and intestinal worms goes without saying.

About the sources of drinking water, the students said 60pc of the city’s population was getting it through blue cans, 25pc availed themselves of the facility of private companies and the remaining got water through hand pumps, electrical motors etc.

They severely criticised the use of blue cans “which are originally used as containers for storage of chemicals and other poisonous materials in industries. When they are of no use, or when the chemical has been used, these cans are made available at very cheap rates to a common man.”

The report further read: “The poisonous effect of the chemicals stored is not washed away, irrespective of the number of times we wash it or fill water in it. We drink poisoned water every day and let these people do their business.”

A water vendor having station near Jhal Khanuana said the district government was well aware of the fact that blue cans were being used with impunity. He said former DCO Naseem Sadiq (now serving as Excise and Taxation DG) had initially removed all such outlets but later allowed them.

He said a couple of months ago some officials of the town administration had cracked down on their business but the vendors resumed it sooner than latter.

District Coordination Officer Noorul Ameen Mengal admits the blue cans are dangerous and pledges these will be replaced with white cans. Referring to a water supply project being undertaken by the Punjab government and a French firm, he said it would be insufficient to meet the need of the entire population of Faisalabad and a PC-1 had been submitted to the provincial government to go for other projects to ensure drinking water for all by 2018. The project requires Rs20 billion, he added.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2014