Killer in Karachi’s water

At least 10 people have died in Karachi this year because of the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri, raising serious questions about water supply and quality in the country’s most populous city. The disease caused by Naegleria fowleri — naegleriasis — is very rare, but it is almost always fatal. Only four out of 157 people known to have been infected in the US survived, while in Pakistan, despite over 100 people being diagnosed in the last decade in Karachi alone, only two patients survived beyond five days, and one of them died of related causes within three months of infection.

While the disease is most commonly spread via the nose by swimming in freshwater ponds and lakes, the two most recent victims had no history of swimming in freshwater, which has put city water managers on the backfoot. We cannot ignore city managers’ lack of attention. Naegleriasis is considered a rural disease in the rest of the world, but water problems in Karachi mean the city regularly produces more cases than several large countries.

The Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) and other water providers, which have been struggling to get anywhere near meeting the city’s water needs for several years, must now answer questions about how the little water it does supply is tainted with the deadly amoeba. However, water providers and health authorities have made conflicting statements, over the safety of piped water. KWSC says all its water is properly chlorinated, which would make the health department’s findings of Naegleria fowleri in the water impossible. Both sides do agree that residential users, including apartment buildings and complexes, do not clean their water storage units as regularly as necessary, creating a favourable environment for microorganisms to grow.

There is also consensus that people should also start chlorinating water themselves. Cost is a relative non-issue, as chlorine tablets sufficient for large water tanks only cost a few rupees, but regularly doing so would require a massive lifestyle shift for many households.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2023.

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