Justice Muslim wants health dept’s top hierarchy removed

Judicial commission report states that there is no sewage treatment system in Sindh

HYDERABAD:  

The judicial commission on water and sanitation's head, Justice (retd) Amir Hani Muslim, has submitted his first report in the apex court, outlining a plethora of problems and remedial measures. After replacing the Sindh High Court's Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro, Justice (retd) Muslim embarked on extensive visits from January 21, inspecting projects under his jurisdiction in each district of Sindh between one and five times.

The commission has proposed removal of the top bureaucracy from the Sindh health department. "It could be made out of the observations that the problem of clean drinking water is multi-faceted and very complex. Years of neglect have taken the issue to such a primary stage where from the whole new edifice needs to be raised."

Water filtration

According to the 21-page report, the government is applying six types of water filtration methods but an overwhelming number of plants are either inoperative or redundant. The methods include simple sedimentation in rural water supply schemes, slow sand filter plants installed at over a dozen places, rapid sand filter plants in a few districts, an ultrafiltration plant in Nawabshah and reverse osmosis plants. Only Karachi and Hyderabad have mechanised filter plants.

"The filter plants in Karachi and Hyderabad are not purifying water within the acceptable parameters," the report observed. "The distribution system in Karachi is seedy and run-down. If at all a plant cleans water to a certain degree, the distribution system ensures that it reverts back to the same, if not worse, state [due to contamination in the supply system]."



The Sindh government has installed more than 2,000 RO plants, which have been installed by different departments, including the local government, public health engineering, irrigation, energy and special initiatives departments. The judge noted the absence of a uniform system of feasibility, design, execution and operation at the RO plants. "With such disorderly and unsystematic handling ... and no single authority responsible, no wonder the whole subject of RO plants is virtually directionless."

The commission found the sedimentation plants dysfunctional. "The plant designs were mostly faulty and the process of chlorination, coagulation and flocculation (alum dosing) weren't being applied [in rural areas]." It noted that there are certain places where, while no other work for rehabilitation of plants has been done, solar panels and batteries have been installed, which is otherwise the last component of a project.

The slow sand filter plants also had design faults and were found non-functional during the visits. "The commission could not find a single scheme [equipped] with proper coagulation and flocculation chambers." The commission stated that the situation merited questions as to who sanctioned such defective schemes and why technical experts in the planning and development department never took notice of the flaws.

The rapid sand filtration plants were also defunct except in Umerkot district. "This kind of plant is somewhat too complicated for the local councils to maintain and operate," the judge observed.



Sewage

To its dismay, the commission noticed only one sewage treatment plant working in the entire province. The judge observed that most of the schemes are designed on the conventional settlement and oxidation mechanisms. "There is no sewage treatment system in the whole province."

The commission noted that discharge of untreated sewage in fresh water bodies at around 750 locations in Sindh continued unabated. "This multiplies the problem when seen in conjunction with non-functional water supply schemes. Treating irrigation canals as garbage dumping stations is also a common sight."

The report stated that tens of thousands of households, shops and cattle pens are illegally built on the banks irrigation canals, polluting the waterways. The same practice was seen in industrial zones, which release effluent in the canals. Justice (retd) Muslim observed that the local councils lack the system to transport municipal solid waste to the landfill sites. "The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency is in fact a disabled and weak organisation barely able to make its presence effectively felt."

Health

The report also highlighted the health department’s practice of outsourcing civil works and procurement of equipment to consultants.

With regard to complaints about shortage of free medicine, the commission noted that it is a disturbing fact that, reportedly, the composition of the medicines procurement committee has been changed by Health Secretary Dr Fazlullah Pechuho. Earlier, the committee was headed by academicians but through a notification on August 11, 2017, Additional Health Secretary Rehan Baloch was made its chairperson.



Complaints began to pour in after the new committee began working. The medical superintendents of different hospitals, district health officers and taluka health officers informed the commission about the issues they were now confronted by in procuring medicines.

The judge noted that Baloch is facing inquiries of the National Accountability Bureau and that there were serious charges against him when he served as additional secretary of education when Dr Pechuho headed the department as its secretary.

"The commission is of the considered view that no improvement can be brought in the health department unless officers at the top level are replaced. With the current bureaucratic leadership lacking the sense of responsibility and vigor no satisfactory change could be made."

Institutional interventions

The commission has assigned operation and maintenance of all RO Plants in Sindh to the public health engineering department. "All the schemes that are being operated and maintained by different local councils and agencies except in Karachi and Hyderabad shall stand devolved to [the department]. All new schemes that the department is executing shall also be operated and maintained by it."

In view of resolving the issues of human resources, corruption and ineptitude, the commission has ordered all officers and engineers facing serious disciplinary or corruption charges to report to the department. "They would no more be holding important assignment of executing schemes." The department will fill the posts of assistant executive engineers (BS-17) through the Sindh Public Service Commission exams and recruitment of sub-engineers will be done through the National Testing Service.



Infrastructure interventions

The commission assessed the Annual Development Programme for 2017-18 to channel funds into schemes that can deliver results sooner than the originally conceived time period.

Under Justice (retd) Muslim’s directives, a PC-I has been approved for a project titled 'elimination of urban sewage discharge in irrigation canals and lakes in Sindh' with a Rs3.59 billion budget. The scheme envisages plugging 181 points where untreated water is currently being allowed to flow into fresh water sources. A feasibility report has been prepared for rehabilitation of 33 non-functional filtration plants at a cost of Rs508.47 million.

Meanwhile, the public health engineering department is currently spending Rs6 billion on rehabilitation of 85 water supply and 134 drainage schemes as well as on the establishment of water testing labs in each district. Another 328 water supply and 211 drainage schemes are under consideration for rehabilitation at the cost of Rs4.59 billion. For phase II of the rehabilitation, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has approved a summary with a Rs5.18 billion budget for 146 water supply and 268 drainage schemes.

For water filter plants in Karachi at Gharo, COD, Pipri and NEK old, the Sindh government has committed funding of Rs1.05 billion. The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board has submitted a work plan to complete the rehabilitation by June, 2020.

With intervention of the commission, the federal government has agreed to release Rs3.18 billion from the current fiscal allocation for the K-IV project, which will be completed by June, 2019, to provide an additional 260 million gallons of water per day to Karachi from the Indus River. The Sindh government has already released its share. The work on the 65MGD water supply scheme to bring water from Haleji to Pipri has been expedited. This scheme worth Rs980 million will be completed by December, 2018.



As for the sewage treatment plants in Karachi, the construction of Treatment Plant-I at Haroonabad and Treatment Plant-III at Mauripur will be completed by December and June, 2018 respectively. On the commission's intervention, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council has approved construction of a new sewerage plant namely TP-IV for Malir Basin. "Activation of these two plants will substantially mitigate the sewerage issues of Karachi," the report expressed the hope. The KWSB has so far rehabilitated 155 pumping stations on the commission's directives.

In Hyderabad for the rehabilitation of a 30MGD filtration plant at Jamshoro, 8MGD at Hala Naka and 8MGD at Paretabad as well as the northern, southern and western treatment plants, Rs750 million has been approved. Hyderabad's water supply lines will also be overhauled with an allocation of Rs200 million.

The study on hydrants in Karachi to ascertain which areas genuinely require them is under way while examination of the newly introduced regulations for hydrants is almost done. The regulations will end the illegal water tanker business.