HYDERABAD, Oct 23: A committee probing the water contamination case has finalized the inquiry report to be submitted to the Sindh chief minister this week after due consultation by committee members.

Irrigation secretary Ashfaq Memon, chairman of the inquiry committee, told this correspondent on Saturday that the report had been finalized but it would be given a final reading by committee members, agriculture secretary Sabhago Jatoi, Mirpurkhas DCO Siddiq Memon and the Hyderabad district nazim, before its submission to the chief minister.

He said the committee members would fix responsibility on officials of the Water and Sanitation Agency, Hyderabad Development Authority and irrigation and health departments.

The report includes proposals on improvement of water supply and irrigation systems with particular reference to launching a monitoring system over canals and water channel, supplying drinking water to people.

The irrigation secretary admitted that the city's water supply system was poor and needed overhauling to avoid such tragedies in future. He specifically referred to waterworks of Latifabad-4.

The inquiry committee has collected documents spreading over around 500 pages, including water samples' reports of different laboratories.

The committee tried to find out what was the standard operative procedure of Wasa and the irrigation department.

The secretary said all relevant points which were part of terms of reference of notification had been discussed. He said the role of officials, including present and former officials of health, Wasa, HDA and irrigation, had been discussed and would be defined in the final report.

The report includes statements of seven sitting and former officers of the irrigation department, 17 officers of health and 6-7 officers of Wasa and the HDA.

The committee, however, has not touched the points whether affected people were given compensation by the government because it was not within terms of reference.

Referring to the irrigation system, Ashfaq Memon maintained that waste of the city was being discharged into the Phulleli Canal and there was no system to check it. He maintained that there was no monitoring or regulatory system on canals at different points, adding that this issue had been dealt with specifically in the report.

On Friday, the committee recorded statements of former Sukkur Barrage chief engineer Ghulam Nabi Mughal, superintending engineer Zahoor Qazi and Dadu executive engineer Habibullah Kaboro in connection with proceedings of the inquiry.