KARACHI, Oct 3: The Pakistan Medical Association has expressed serious concern over the supply of water containing toxic material to the city through the Kalri Baghar (KB) Upper Feeder Canal.

A considerable quantity of untreated industrial waster water, containing effluents, of Kotri industrial area is being discharged into the KB Upper Feeder Canal, which is the main source of supplying water to the city from the River Indus. Almost half the population of Thatta is also consuming this water.

Taking strong notice of a news item published in Dawn, the PMA deplored that the “heinous” act of poisoning drinking water with industrial effluents had been continuing unabated with the discharge of untreated industrial water/effluents into the Canal, but people at the helm had so far done nothing to stop the “criminal act” of polluting potable water.

“Isn’t it an irony that, on the one hand, the KWSB’s filter plants are not equipped with the device required for removing or detecting toxic contents in water, and, on the other, no alternative measures have been taken for segregating the toxic elements from the drinking water being supplied to Karachi and Thatta through the Canal,” the PMA office-bearers lamented.

Voicing its concern, the PMA’s city chapter, through a resolution, demanded of Sindh governor Mohammedmian Soomro and the city Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, to take strong action against the authorities concerned for the “criminal” negligence on their part in supplying water containing toxic material to the Karachiites, and also make it mandatory for industries to set up plants for treating their industrial waste before discharging it into canals, rivers and sea.

The PMA deplored that scores of patients from different hard-hit areas are daily brought to private and government hospitals for treatment of water-borne diseases, particularly the life-threatening gastroenteritis problems, because of increasing level of water pollution mainly caused by seepage of gutter water into water supply pipelines. The supply of water containing toxic material to Karachi will play havoc with the lives of the people.

“Children are extremely vulnerable to the increased level of water pollution due to intrusion of sewage water into water supply pipelines. Several incidents of such nature have already stricken different areas of the city in July, but unfortunately the authorities concerned have remained absolutely unmoved,” the general secretary of the PMA, Dr Habib-ur-Rahman Soomro, regretted, urging the Sindh governor and the city Nazim to instruct the authorities concerned to immediately take measures to check the menace of toxic contents in water before supplying it for drinking as well as agricultural purposes. If the supply of water containing toxic material went on, toxic waste would continue to deposit in different body organs which would soon damage these, especially vital organs.

Describing the issue of water containing toxic material as of a highly serious nature for the people of Karachi, the KWSB while bringing the issue to the notice of Sindh’s additional chief secretary of planning and development department had requested him to direct SITE to immediately stop disposal of Kotri industrial area’s untreated effluents into the KB Feeder (Upper) Canal, emphasizing that if the required measure was not taken, the supply of toxic water could pose serious health hazards to the people of Karachi and Thatta.