BADIN: Retired Justice Amir Hani Muslim, who heads the Supreme Court-appointed judicial commission, visited various water supply and sewerage installations and irrigation channels in different towns of Badin district on Thursday.

He expressed his displeasure over poor maintenance of the installations, supply of hazardous drinking water to people and dangerously unhygienic conditions in various localities caused by ill-maintained sewerage network.

Justice Muslim warned the officials concerned of severe action if they continued to demonstrate negligence by neglecting the water supply and drainage system of the area. He admonished the officials for not paying heed to public complaints regarding an acute shortage of drinking and irrigation water in the district.

The judge reminded the officials that they were supposed to ensure supply of clean drinking water in adequate quantity to each and every locality falling within their area of operation. Whoever was found responsible for the conditions prevailing in the district would be liable to punishment, he warned.

In each area visited by the commission, local people came up with complaints about unavailability of drinking water, acute shortage of irrigation water and unhygienic conditions in their respective localities. Many of them also complained that their requests for remedial measures always fell on deaf ears.

Justice Muslim gave them a patient hearing and issued necessary directives to the officials concerned. He spent several hours in Golarchi town and inspected waterworks and drains along with the officials concerned. He posed questions to the officials regarding imperfect water supply and dysfunctional drainage system.

Justice Muslim directed the Badin deputy commissioner and Golarchi town committee chairman to pay due attention to all civic problems being faced by the people of the district and take immediate and appropriate measures the resolve the issues.

He took notice of the official lethargy and apathy when, during his visit to the Golarchi filtration plant, he came to know that it had been lying non-functional for about a decade. He asked the Badin DC, Golarchi assistant commissioner and town committee chairman to make it functional within the next three months.

In his visit to an irrigation channel, Guni Wah, and nearby drinking water reservoirs, Justice Muslim saw some people filling buckets and other containers and taking them away by their motorcycles or donkey-driven carts.

He directed the officials concern to make some suitable arran­ge­ments to facilitate the filling and transportation of water keeping in mind hygiene and easier supply modes.

When Justice Muslim proceeded to Khoski and asked the town committee chairman for an inspection of the area’s drainage system, he was baffled to know that no such network existed there.

The judge expressed his anger over it and ordered Deputy Commissioner Dr Shahzad Thah­eem to chalk out a drainage scheme for the town within a week and submit a report to the commission.

While on his way to Khoski, the judge visited water supply scheme of Nindo Shahar town where people complained of unavailability of drinking water for two days.

He asked the executive engineer and other officials concerned to appear before the commission with relevant record.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2018