KARACHI: Amid surge in cases of waterborne diseases, the city administration has announced to set up 29 chlorination centres across the metropolis to improve quality of potable water being supplied by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC).

This was announced on Friday by Karachi Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab, who is also the chairman of the KWSC board.

Talking to reporters, he said that the ground work for the chlorination centres had been completed and after crucial testing all the centres would become operational by the end of the current year.

He hoped that it would help ensuring provision of safe tap water.

“Apart from that, we are also setting four facilitation centres of the KWSC across the city. We are working on two parallel things — arrangement of the required supply of water and then to make it safe and consumable. On one hand, we are putting resources to make it safe and on the other we are working only multiple projects to add more water to the city supply,” he said.

According to health experts and bodies including the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), the general public in the city is forced to consume contaminated water, which exposes them to the grave risk of getting infections such as typhoid, gastroenteritis, cholera, hepatitis A and E, and Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM), one of the most dangerous diseases. Health experts off and on underscore the need for public awareness and efforts on the part of the government to ensure the supply of safe water.

Mayor Wahab says all centres will become operational by December

The mayor said that the development work was already going on over a Rs12 billion project for construction of a new canal to supply water to the metropolis from Hub Dam and rehabilitation of the existing canal and claimed that 200 million gallons of water per day (MGD) could be provided to the city from the dam after the completion of the project in 12 months.

Around 100 MGD water is being supplied to district West from the Hub Dam through the existing the Hub canal, which has been in dilapidated condition and develops cracks frequently, especially during the wet season when the dam is overflowed, he said.

“This water project would double the supply of water from the Hub Dam, benefitting residents of districts West, Central, Keamari and South, and other areas of the city,” said the mayor.

“Similarly, there is another project going on at Dhabeji to contain the line losses. Once this project is completed, we would be able to save hundreds of thousands of gallons that would add to regular supply of the city. I hope that with completion of all these projects within a year, we would see a big and positive change in the city’s water supply situation,” he added.

He also said that the KWSC TP-3 plant had been made operational, and 35 million gallons of sewage per day was being treated before being released into the sea. He referred to the reports of a laboratory test of the treated water which had declared fit for required consumption. “The treated water will be tested in laboratory to assess its suitability for industrial and construction use,” he added.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2024