LAHORE, Sept 18: Samples from one of five filtration plants installed recently in the city show that water is unfit for human consumption, putting a question mark over the Rs6 billion investment being made by the federal government for providing clean drinking water to all citizens.

Sources in the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) say the district authorities have collected samples from the filtration plants commissioned in Karim Park, Dharampura, Chungi Amar Sadhu, Mughalpura and Rehmanpura and sent them to the EPA laboratory for a chemical analysis.

Of them, the samples collected from Rehmanpura plant have been found unfit as tests show presence of bacteria and other micro-organisms in water, they say.

The test report also belies claims of Wasa officials that water quality at source, at Wasa tube-wells, is up to the mark as water is being pumped out from a depth of over 700 feet.

The Wasa authorities have been blaming the use of donkey-pumps by consumers and rustic supply lines for poor quality of water at consumers’ end.

The district authorities, in the hope that filtration plants would be a source of providing germs-free water, had directed Wasa to install taps at all its tube-wells so that citizens who complained that they were being provided contaminated water, could get clean water direct from there according to their needs.

With Rs6 billion World Bank loan, the federal government has recently started commissioning filtration plants, one each in 4,500 union councils of the country. The project is to be completed within five years.

Each plant can filter 2,000 gallons of water per hour.

The plants are being provided by the federal government but the relevant union council is required to provide a 12 by 12 room, power and water connections for the plant as well as bear their bills.

Expenses of salaries of the operators and maintenance of the plants will also be borne by UCs.

In Punjab, the scheme is being executed through tehsil municipal administrations which neither have resources nor capacity for the purpose. —Amjad Mahmood