Verifying claims: Judicial commission inspects water supply, drainage disposal stations

Change of infrastructure demanded due to complaints of contaminated water

SUKKUR: Following complaints of contaminated water supply and a failed drainage system, members of a high-level judicial commission formed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan visited different water supply stations and drainage disposals in Sukkur and Jacobabad on Wednesday. The delegation visited Larkana and Shikarpur on Tuesday.

Following complaints of supplying contaminated water to the citizens of upper Sindh, the apex court has formed a high-level judicial commission headed by a Justice Iqbal Ahmed Kalhoro. The commission, accompanied by the managing-director of the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation (NSUSC), Syed Mehmood Abbas Shah, visited different reservoirs of water supply and drainage disposal stations in Sukkur where Shah briefed the judicial commission about the water supply and drainage system in the city.

In Jacobabad, the DC briefed commission members that work on the supply of sweet water to the citizens is under way and will be completed by the end of 2017.

On this occasion, the trade bodies and citizen organisation office bearers said that the citizens are being supplied with contaminated water. They claimed that the water supply lines have worn out and mixed with the drainage lines, due to which citizens are forced to consume contaminated water. As far as the sanitation is concerned, the recruitment of white collar employees as sanitary workers has magnified the problem and thus the city has been turned into a garbage dump.

The judicial commission visited Larkana on Tuesday to see the poor condition of drainage and water supply themselves. Despite spending around Rs90 billion, civic conditions in Larkana have become worse.

The residents are not getting potable water nor is the drainage system working properly, due to which most of the main roads of the city are submerged in sewerage water. Besides this, the commission also visited different water supply and drainage stations in Shikarpur, including Begari Canal, Latif Shah pumping station, Larai Muhalla pumping station, Gole market and NSUSC office.

Citizens came forward with complaints against the officials and said that more than 135 acres of land belonging to the Shikarpur Municipal Committee has been illegally occupied. The commission directed the Shikarpur deputy commissioner and SSP to get the municipal land vacated within two months, besides ordering the installation of treatment plants at all the drainage disposal stations that are releasing unfiltered drainage water in fresh water canals.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2017.