KARACHI: At least two-thirds of the water samples collected during the last four days from parts of the city and tested in government laboratories were found not satisfactorily chlorinated, painting an appalling picture for the citizens stunned by the horrors of the ‘brain-eating’ amoeba, or Naegleria fowleri, which has claimed five lives in Sindh this year, it emerged on Wednesday.

Though, officials said, the collection of samples so far taken did not represent the whole city and reflected the situation in fewer than half a dozen neighbourhoods, the results could be taken as a precursor of some horrifying situation in view of the past dismal performance of the relevant authorities.

Also read: Editorial-Naegleria fowleri deaths

A focal group comprising provincial and metropolitan health departments, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), public health engineering department, etc, have been working for a week now to collect and test samples of water supplied to the city and take effective measures to improve its quality.

The focal group, a reporting body, has started collecting and testing the samples. The figures that it is getting each day are dreadfully poorer than what it had got last year. The group’s tasks include keeping chlorine at a ‘desired level’ across the metropolis, which is yet to be achieved.

Naegleria has claimed five lives within 30 days. When three lives perished from the lethal germ, the focal group was formally formed by the health authorities, asking it to collect and test water samples and publicly share them.

Such tests taken in 2013 showed that an average of 41 per cent of the city was being supplied with unsatisfactorily chlorinated water. The percentage increased to 45 last year and now, although it is just the beginning, the samples show just the one-third of the city is being supplied with adequately chlorinated water.

Officials in the focal group shared the data of the samples they collected and tested in the last four days offering bad news for the citizens of the metropolis, though they said the samples were taken in just a few localities of the city.

They did not mention the neighbourhoods they chose to collect the samples from, but 75 of the 170 samples examined were found containing chlorine equal to or more than 0.25 parts per million (ppm) — the minimum desired level of chlorination.

The other 115 samples of water had insufficient chlorine. A couple of samples showed even no chlorination at all, while the rest had it at less than the desired level.

“This is just the beginning,” said an official. “We have taken samples from the areas where the cases of Naegleria fowleri have surfaced during the last few years. This should not be taken as the true reflection of the whole city.”

However, he admitted that the way the samples were turning out to be unsatisfactorily chlorinated showed the ratio of chlorination must be much poorer than what it had been in the previous two years.

“The KWSB and the government at large will have to work more assiduously to improve the situation now. We all have to be industrious and efficient to save the lives,” he added.

The authorities understood that chlorine was available in sufficient quantities but its execution lacked a proper strategy.

Citizens horrified by brain-eating amoeba’s lethality feel the need to make sure that their water supply is safe.

In this situation, people are only left with a solution to mitigate the danger of naegleria — that is paying from their own pockets for chlorination.

Taking advantage of this public concern, people dealing in medicines are making their business flourish by selling chlorine tablets; similar to those dealing in fumigation and mosquito repellents cash in on dengue fear.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2015

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