SUKKUR, April 17: The Sindh High Court Sukkur bench has directed the Sindh Environment Department to test the quality of drinking water being supplied in Sukkur and submit a report within a week.

The bench, comprising Justice Dr Rana Mohammad Shamim and Justice Farrukh Zia G. Shaikh, issued these directives on Wednesday, on a petition filed by a Sukkur-based journalist, Lala Asad Pathan, through his lawyer, Ghulam Shabbir Shar, stating that the water being supplied in Sukkur was contaminated and unfit for human consumption.

Sukkur Public Health Engineering Department Engineer Ibrahim Surhio told the court that a mega project of water supply and drainage was under way and in that connection a pipeline would be laid under the Shikarpur railway crossing in New Goth Sukkur, for which the Pakistan Railways had been paid Rs4.9 million.

The court ordered the Pakistan Railways authorities to complete the task within three months, otherwise contempt notices would be issued to them.

The court also ordered the Public Health Engineering Department to complete and make functional the mega project by December 2008.

The Sukkur district government has launched projects of water supply and drainage for which federal and Sindh governments have granted funds of Rs5 billion and Rs4 billion respectively.