SUKKUR, July 10 Consumption of contaminated water adds to the number of people suffering from gastroenteritis and other water-borne diseases here.

The city taluka municipal administration has been supplying contaminated water for last two months. In this grim situation people, particularly those living in the low-lying areas and slums, are falling victim to stomach ailments and gastroenteritis.

According to TMA sources, it is due to inavailability of alum, used to filter water, that river water is being directly supplied to the people.

Executive District Officer (health) Dr Tarique Abbas Dareshani and a former incharge of food laboratory said polluted water was the root cause of different diseases and a simple laboratory test could prove it.

They said the TMA water works was not cleaning the water tanks properly and supplying contaminated water to the people. If the staff of water works used chemicals and alum according to water tanks' capacity, people could get clean water, they said.

They linked the supply of unfiltered to the spread of hepatitis B, C and gastroenteritis.

Medical Superintendent of Civil Hospital, Sukkur, Dr Iqbal Pathan said that over 400 patients suffering from gastroenteritis and stomach diseases were admitted to the hospital every month.

The taluka municipal officer, Sukkur city, Abdul Shakoor Mahar, said available sources were being utilised to ensure supply of clean water and high-quality alum received from Karachi was being used.

However, he admitted that it was due to prolonged electricity loadshedding that sometimes water was supplied directly from the river to meet immediate demand.

Sukkur City Taluka Nazim Muhammad Naeem Siddiqui said 14 million gallons of water was supplied to the city and new Sukkur talukas.

He said due to frequent and hours-long loadshedding, water could not be stored in the tanks of water works and was being supplied without filtration to some areas.