By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI - Taking strong notice of reports that various localities of the city were not being supplied chlorinated water, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has asked the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) management to ensure that all parts of the metropolis must get chlorinated water.
He also asked the officials of the water utility to create awareness about Naegleria fowleri and dengue among masses.
Presiding over a joint meeting of the Sindh health department, KWSB and KMC, held to evolve a strategy to combat the lethal diseases - dengue and Naegleria -, the CM said that he was informed that water samples collected from different localities had no traces of chlorine which, he added, was unbelievable and required to be checked thoroughly.
However, Sindh health minister Jam Mehtab Dahar told the meeting that during his recent inspection of the water supply system - from Dhabeji to the main conduit – which he undertook on the directives of the CM, he found that the KWSB had been mixing a little higher than the prescribed doze of chlorine, but since the water supply network is old, chlorine gets evaporated whenever chlorinated water is exposed to oxygen from leakages and that is why water samples collected from different areas indicated negative results,” he added.
Endorsing the health minister’s views, KWSB managing director Hashim Raza Zaidi told the CM Shah that he had developed 18 chlorination booster spots so that the chlorination losses caused by evaporation could be controlled. “A bottle of sodium hypo chloride which costs around Rs17 is enough for a month to chloride water in a house, but this needs to be publicized,” he said.
Zaidi further said that KWSB spends Rs130 million on the purchase of chlorine every month. “We purchase containers, each weighing 900kg, and it is properly mixed in the water being supplied to the city,” he said.
The CM suggested that the task of chlorination process should be assigned to honest and dedicated officers.
The chief minister directed the KWSB and KMC to start fumigation campaign and launch an awareness campaign against dengue and Naegleria.
Earlier, Commissioner Karachi and KMC Administrator Shoaib Siddiqui said that under the directives of the chief minister in 2013, drastic measures were taken to control dengue in the city. “The government had given special trainings to the doctors and paramedical staff to deal with the dengue patients. Nets were made available to hospitals and isolated wards were designated.
Elaborating, he said awareness campaign was launched by involving civil society, DHA, CAA and cantonment boards.