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At least 77 per cent of the water in 14 districts of Sindh was found to be unsafe for human consumption, according to an inquiry report submitted before the Sindh High Court (SHC).
The report, titled 'Status of drinking water, quality of surface and ground water sources in Sindh' was submitted before the SHC on Saturday, DawnNews reported.
It mentions that 460 water samples were collected from surface and underground sources and reverse osmosis (RO) plants in different districts of Sindh by Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) teams.
The districts included Karachi, Thatta, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Tando Mohammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Badin, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Nawabshah, Khairpur, Sukkur, Shikarpur and Larkana.
The report stated that "water samples were analysed for detailed physicochemical and microbiological drinking water quality parameters. The analytical data was compared with the World Health Organisation, Sindh Environmental Quality Standards and National Environmental Quality Standards guideline values recommended for safe drinking water."
District wise breakup of report's findings
Karachi
In Karachi city, 118 samples were collected from different sources, out of which 107 (90.7 per cent) were found to be unsafe for human consumption.
Besides, 17.8pc samples were found unsafe for drinking due to contamination from physical parameters, which means there was presence of turbidity values beyond safe limits.
Furthermore, 9.3pc samples were found unsafe due to the presence of high content of total dissolved solids (TDS), while 88.1pc samples had the presence of total coliforms and 33.4pc samples had faecal contamination.
Thatta
In Thatta district, 16 water samples were collected from different sources of which 14 (87.5pc) were found unsafe for human consumption.
Hyderabad
In Hyderabad district, 40 water samples were collected of which 35 (87.5pc) were unsafe for human consumption.
Jamshoro
In Jamshoro district an alarming 29 (96.7pc) of the 30 drinking water samples collected were found unsafe for drinking.
Tando Muhammad Khan
In Tando Muhammad Khan district, it was found that out of 20 drinking water samples 17 (85pc) were unsafe for human consumption.
Tando Allahyar
An alarming 91pc of the water samples collected from ground water sources and RO plants were found unsafe for human consumption in Tando Allahyar.
Badin
In Badin district, out of the 36 drinking water samples that were collected 29 (80.6pc) were unsafe for human consumption.
Mirpurkhas
Eighteen out of 20 water samples were found unsafe for human consumption in Mirpurkhas.
Tharparkar
In Tharparkar, 64.3pc water samples were found unsafe for human consumption.
Nawabshah
In district Nawabshah more than half of the water samples (57.7pc), collected from different areas, were found unsafe for human consumption.
Khairpur
In Khairpur (Mirs), 28 water samples were collected from different water sources of which 20 (71.4pc) were unsafe for human consumption.
Sukkur
Meanwhile, 30 water samples were collected from surface and ground water sources in Sukkur and 25 (83.3pc) were found unsafe for human consumption.
Shikarpur
In Shikarpur 25 out of 32 water samples were found to be unsafe for human consumption.
Larkana
In Larkana, 88pc of the collected samples from underground sources were unsafe for drinking purpose.
Water quality in hospitals
In order to check the quality of water being provided in hospitals and medical care centres, 87 water samples were collected from 71 hospitals in 14 districts, out of which an alarming 68 (78.1pc) were found unsafe for human consumption for analysed parameters under prescribed standards.
Out of the 87 samples, 25 (28.7pc) were found unsafe due to chemical parameters - high total dissolved solids and other inorganic constituents.
Furthermore, 68 (78.1pc) samples were found unsafe due to microbiological contamination (presence of coliform and E.coil bacteria).
It was also found that 29 (33.3pc) of the samples were contaminated with E.coli, which indicates the mixing of sewage water with fresh water sources.
