HYDERABAD: The Supreme Court commission tasked with inspecting water supply and drainage installations and quality of drinking water being supplied to people in Sindh has asked the authorities concerned to form a short-term plan immediately to stop flow of toxic runoff and sewage into Phuleli canal.

The one-man commission headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro said during his second visit to the canal and other sites following a hearing at the Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad circuit bench on Saturday that the plan must be put in place till work on a federally-funded scheme for a modern treatment plant being executed under the Hyderabad Development Package was completed. The scheme was aimed at treating industrial and domestic waste water before releasing it into the canal.

The judge was highly displeased during his visit to Darya Khan pumping station where the plant was being established. He asked why no plan had been prepared thus far and the canal continued to receive toxic effluent and municipal waste.

He formed a committee to immediately devise the plan for stopping flow of toxic effluent into Phuleli and asked it to submit a report on April 22.

An irrigation officer, Ejaz Qureshi, who accompanied the judge suggested that a reverse osmosis plant on rent could be installed to treat the effluent. Dr Ghulam Murtaza of Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources and water technologist Dr Ahsan Siddiqui disagreed with the officer but the judge said the proposal should not be dismissed outright. “I want an immediate plan till the treatment plant is set up,” he remarked.

Hyderabad Commissioner Dr Suhail Rajput agreed with him, saying the effluent’s treatment was necessary considering the fact that the scheme was not yet completed and its cost also must have escalated by now. The federal government would have to be approached for its execution, which was a lengthy process, he said.

Masood Jumani, HDA’s director general, said that Rs500 million out of total cost of Rs915m had been spent on the treatment plant which was a modernised effluent treatment plant of 22 million gallons per day.

Justice Kalhoro directed Hyderabad sessions judge to visit the remaining filtration and treatment plants along with managing director of Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and Hyderabad deputy commissioner Anwar Ali Shar within a week and submit a report about quality of water supplied by the plants.

He directed SSP Irfan Ali Baloch to set up a police picket around the filter plant to stop trespass by anti-social elements from the area and ordered Hyderabad commissioner and managing director of Wasa to construct boundary wall around filtration plants and water lagoons with barbed wire on top to protect them.

He asked the officials to file reports in a month.

He observed that only one part of filtration process — chlorination — was being carried out and until complete process of filtration was ensured quality of water would not improve.

He regretted that no strategy had been formed to make things better and ground realities suggested that no substantial progress had been achieved since the directives were passed by the apex court.

He lamented that authorities did not show concern over the worsening situation caused by dumping of municipal and industrial waste into canals in Hyderabad.

He expressed his displeasure over delay in repair of pipes required for chlorination of water in the filtration plant and was informed by a Wasa officer, Saleemuddin, that post-chlorination of water had started on trial basis and a month’s time was needed to repair pipes so that pre-, intermediate and post-chlorination of drinking water — three separate stages of chlorination process — was ensured.

Hyderabad deputy commissioner Anwar Ali Shar complained that the administration was facing FIRs for its drive against encroachments from banks of canals. He was told the commission would look into it but the administration should continue to do its job.

Justice Kalhoro observed that except for an operation in Seri for removing encroachments from the canals’ banks nothing tangible had been observed so far.

He directed the officials that action against encroachers should be across the board and not selective as he had received complaints that only poor people were being targeted and those who had built plazas were being spared.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2017