KARACHI, May 17: The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board has requested the nazim of Thatta district to impose a ban on bathing in the 17-kilometre-long unfenced stretch of Gharo Canal to prevent drowning incidents and save water from becoming polluted.

The step had been taken in backdrop of the fact that at least four persons had drowned in the canal during the last five days, a senior official of the KWSB told Dawn on Saturday.

A summary would be sent to the government, formally requesting the Thatta nazim to ban bathing and swimming in the canal through which Karachi got 550 million gallons of water daily, he said.

Confirming that at least four bodies had been recovered from the canal in just five days, KWSB chief engineer (Bulk Supply), Farrukh Naeem, said that only a couple of days back three bodies – one of an elderly person and two of the boys aged between 11 and 15 years – were found stuck in the net that had been affixed at the beginning of the conduit to check foreign elements entering the canal. The bodies were handed over to Edhi ambulances by the KWSB staff, he added.

The KWSB official said a barbed wire that was erected along the canal had been cut from various spots by some unscrupulous elements. The KWSB was planning to raise a wall at those places along the canal which were close to the road, he added.Asked if the presence of bodies in the canal could affect the quality of drinking water being supplied to the city, he replied in the negative. “Since the place (from where the bodies were recovered) was quite far from the city it cannot have any negative impact on the quality of water being supplied to the city,” he said. Besides, he said, the KWSB increased the dose of chlorine in the canal as a precautionary measure.

The KWSB official’s claim was endorsed by the secretary of the Pakistan Medical Association, Dr Shershah Syed, who ruled out any possibility of water getting polluted. He said: “If the KWSB is carrying out proper filtration and chlorination process before supplying water to consumers, the possibility of water being polluted or infected does not arise.”