NAWABSHAH: Retired Justice Amir Hani Muslim, chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed commission on water quality in Sindh, has expressed dissatisfaction over the quality of water being supplied to the citizens of Nawabshah and warned officials to ensure cleanliness of reservoirs within a fortnight.

He issued this direction during a visit to water supply schemes, including Ultra Water Filtration Plant Scheme Phase IV near Quaid-i-Awam University reser­voirs at Rohri Canal and Gujrah Wah, on Wednesday.

He asked officials of the public health department and Nawabshah municipal committee to ensure cleaning of the reservoirs and the area within 15 days.

Justice Muslim also directed for immediate removal of private livestock farms built/established on the government land near Gujrah Wah and ensure construction of boundary walls around the reservoirs of Rohri Canal scheme.

Mr Muslim said he was the chairman of water commission for six months and he would ensure that people got pure and clean drinking water within this period of time.

He asked the officials how they could neglect the conditions and allow the citizens to drink contaminated water.

He also warned the contractor of a private company responsible for the maintenance of water filtration plants to install meters for proper monitoring and ensure implementation on the recommendations of the commission presented in the past.

The zonal head of the private company was also summoned to the office of the water commission in Karachi on Feb 16.

The officials of public health engineering and municipal administration of Nawabshah kept shifting responsibilities during the visit.

Three months ago, Naw­ab­shah Judicial Magistrate Safdar Jatoi on the directives of the water commission visited all water supply schemes and submitted his complete report mentioning that the water being supplied was neither pure nor clean.

But no attention was paid and no improvement was made during these three months by the public health engineering department and the municipal administration.

Others who also accompanied the commission head included irrigation department secretary Jamal Mus­tafa Syed and Shaheed Ben­a­zirabad Deputy Comm­is­sioner Mohammed Nau­man Latki.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2018