The Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice (CJ) on Tuesday disposed of a suo motu notice and a petition against the presence of arsenic in drinking water of tube wells in the city.
The court disposed the case after the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) managing director (MD) submitted a report in the court on Tuesday stating that the contract for installation of filtration plant in each of the union councils in the city had been awarded to National Engineering Services Pakistan (Pvt) Limited (NESPAK). He said that NESPAK had already started work on the project.
The petition was filed by Advocate Mateenul Haq Chaudhry, who had pointed out that during power outages, the supply of water to the residents of Lahore was stopped. He said that Wasa had claimed to have installed power generators for tube wells to ensure smooth supply during loadshedding, but the problem persisted. The Wasa MD said the generators would be installed soon at each tube well.
Earlier, the Punjab government had informed the court that Rs42 million had been transferred to Wasa for the generators. The court was told that the installation of water filtration plants had already started. The Wasa MD said that 150 filtration plants had been imported from China to ensure supply of arsenic-free drinking water.
In 2010, former LHC CJ Khwaja Muhammad Sharif had taken a suo motu notice after several petitions were filed about dirty drinking water. The CJ had taken the notice after a report that a study by the Environmental Protection Department had revealed that out of 392 tube wells in the city, 253 had arsenic-contaminated water.
The court had been informed that examination of samples from tube wells had confirmed arsenic contamination, beyond the permitted level.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2011.
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I think it's great that they are finally doing something about contaminated water, however, arsenic is only one of many dangerous chemicals in the water these days. Are the new filtration systems going to remove more than just the arsenic? If not, what is the point. The other chemicals in the water are just as harmful, people just don't realize the effects of these other chemicals. And at some point, they are going to have to upgrade these systems to ensure more chemicals are removed. Why not go the distance and ensure everything is removed now instead of spending millions more later.
Adam Michaels
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