KARACHI, May 31: The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday launched a joint drive to collect water samples in Karachi for their scientific analysis.

The two agencies are carrying out the sampling with a view to ascertain the quality of water and maintaining an authentic record of such tests for all purposes in future.

The EPA and the KWSB had earlier agreed to develop a new system of joint collection of sampling and testing of water right from Keenjhar (Kalri) Lake to various distribution points in Karachi.

Talking to Dawn, secretary of environment, Shujaat A Qarni, said that the new system had been devised to obtain better results, as earlier there were conflicting reports about quality of water.

As per the decision, the two agencies would collect water samples at different locations, including its ingress and distribution points in Karachi. Similarly, he said that he had also talked to people concerned in Hyderabad and it had been decided that sampling and testing of water would be carried out in Hyderabad with the collaboration of SEPA, Water and Sanitation Agency, Hyderabad and Sindh University.

To a question, he said that chemical reports of the samples would be available within hours after collection, while microbiological tests for the determination of nature of coliform, if any, would take at least five days. For the time being, the samples collected at Karachi would be analysed at SEPA and KWSB laboratories, he said.