HYDERABAD, July 30: The Water and Sanitation Agency is supplying turbid water to the city because chlorination plant is out of order and there is a shortage of aluminium sulphate which causes dust particles to settle.

According to Managing Director Saleemuddin, bleaching liquid is used in filter plants when chlorine is in short supply. He hoped the situation would improve with the availability of alum in a reasonable quantity. Efforts are also under way to remove the plant’s fault.

“This is all due to financial problems the agency is facing and it is unable even to pay salaries to its employees,” he said.

Clarifiers of the newly-installed 30MGD filter plant on Jamshoro road have become non-functional because of heavy silt.

Wasa lagoons are not being filled to the capacity which has hampered the sedimentation process, sources in the Hyderabad Development Authority said.

“Wasa authorities are mixing raw water with the partially treated at the new filter plant to meet demand in tail-end areas of the supply system.”

Water expert Dr Ahsan Siddiqui said the quality of water was being regularly examined on court’s directives after the incident of May 2004 when deaths were reported because of consumption of poisonous water released from the Manchhar Lake.

He said chlorination was essential to kill bacteria in water and recommended the use of chlorine in proportion to the distance the drinking water covers. Chlorine contents are increased if water has to be supplied to a distant area.

Wasa is facing severe financial crisis and is unable to pay salary because of which employees have retorted to a tool down strike.

Sources said the recovery of water charges were poor and nobody knew when the much-talked-about bailout package would be given to Wasa by the Sindh government.