Faulty apparatus: Thousands of samples pending in water lab

Photometer equipment not functioning for last two months, says official.

ISLAMABAD:

Faulty apparatus at a premier national water quality laboratory in Islamabad has caused pendency of thousand of water samples sent in for testing.

According to an official, photometer equipment in the National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL), which works under the Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), a department of the Science and Technology Ministry, has been out of order for the last two months.



The official said that the department receives at least 40 to 50 water samples on a daily basis from areas including Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Jhelum, Attock, Chakwal, and Fateh Jang. He said the majority of samples were being received from government schools in the Rawalpindi division.

“It is the responsibility of the department to ensure smooth functioning of its equipment so that the people can be facilitated,” he said, adding that high ups have been informed about the issue, but to no avail. He said that the water samples would continue piling up if the apparatus was not fixed immediately. Muhammad Khalid, a resident of Attock, who has been waiting for results of the water samples from his home, said he collected the samples on March 25, but despite a lapse of over two weeks, the department has failed to give him the results of the water samples. He said that the department was supposed to give him the report in a week’s time.

Khalid said that water in his village was contaminated by waste water last month and they were worried about the water quality.

An official of the Government Secondary School Jhelum, who had been waiting for the analysis result, said despite a lapse three weeks, he had not been given the results.

“This is a grave issue and it is the responsibility of the government to correct it,” he said.

The laboratory charges from Rs1,700 to Rs2,200 to carry out water quality analysis.

PCRWR Spokesperson Lubna Naheed admitted that the equipment was out of order and that the department had sent a request for a new machine. She said that water sample submissions have increased with summer approaching and hoped that the backlog would be disposed once the new machine was provided.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2014.