KARACHI, Sept 19: The menace of contaminated water has reached alarming proportions in several localities of the city, causing diarrhoea, nausea and other stomach ailments among the residents of the localities being supplied stinking water.

At a time when residents of Adamjee Nagar and parts of Bangalore Town have already been facing the problem of contaminated water for the last fortnight, complaints of getting stinking water have also been received from Mehmoodabad No 1 and 6, PECHS (Green-belt) area, parts of Administration Cooperative Housing Society, Orangi’s Ghausia Baloch Colony and Benazir Colony.

Residents of Mehmoodabad and PECHS complained that although a vast area of their localities was continuously being supplied stinking water for the last four days, the officials concerned of the KWSB have not yet bothered to remove the fault responsible, despite a number of complaints that have been lodged with them.

A perturbed resident of PECHS (Green-belt) area, Mohammad Jan Khattak, told Dawn that in spite of the fact that he had lodged a number of complaints with the officials concerned of the KWSB’s sewerage department as well as with the complaint centres of LOG Headquarters and Governor House, the lingering issue of contaminated water was still persisting in his locality.

“Earlier, our locality used to be deprived of water for weeks, and now we are facing the issue of contaminated water for the last four days,” he deplored.

Suspecting that sewage water might have been mixed with the pipeline supplying water to Mehmoodabad and PECHS, he demanded of the city Nazim and the KWSB managing director to direct the officials concerned to immediately remove the cause of contaminated water, or else the residents of the affected localities will be exposed to serious abdomen diseases.

A councillor of Orangi’s Union Council No 9, Aftab Ahmed Khan, complained that hundreds of houses in Ghausia Baloch Colony and Benazir Colony were getting stinking water for the last two- and-a-half months, but the officials concerned of the KWSB were taking no measures to rectify the fault responsible, and thus exposing the residents of affected localities to serious health hazards.

Realizing that an eight-inch dia pipeline line and a sewerage line which are running parallel to the Benazir Colony bridge were the main cause of contaminated water, he regretted that the officials of Orangi’s KWSB sewerage department were taking no interest in removing the cause of stinking water, and as a result of which, a number of people of the locality, particularly children and elderly persons, have already become victims of diarrhoea and other stomach diseases.