Water plant leak exposes residents to toxic gas

LUH treats 29 patients after Chlorine gas exposure

HYDERABAD:

Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) in Hyderabad admitted 29 individuals, including 22 children, due to health issues related to inhaling chlorine gas on Thursday. The patients were transported from Khursheed Town and Jatoi Goth, areas affected by a leak from a large chlorine cylinder that had been unused for years at the Hala Naka water filtration plant.

The incident created a scare in the locality as announcement from mosques urged people, specifically children, to stay indoors. The leakage occurred in the afternoon. It largely affected children, aged between four to 15 years, who were returning from their schools. The affected people were rushed to the hospital by the local community.

Rescue 1122 immediately responded to the scene. They first cooled down the leaking yellow coloured cylinder, with a capacity of 900 kilograms, through water pressure. It was later thrown in a water tank to avoid further harm to the surrounding populations.

Dr Faizan Memon of LUH said that all the patients from the Khursheed Town and Jatoi Goth have reported health issues caused by gas leakage. The chlorine inhalation causes violent cough, nausea, lightheadedness, headache, chest pain and abdominal discomfort. Chlorine has a strong irritating smell. It enters human body through the respiratory system.

Many of the patients were discharged after basic treatment. However, the condition of 10 of them remained unstable. Four among the patients were workers of Hyderabad Water and Sewerage Board Corporation (HW&SBC) who operate the plants. The teams of Rescue 1122 later visited door to door to check if anyone is lying unconscious at their home.

An official, who requested anonymity, claimed that the leaked cylinder which was filled with chlorine gas was lying useless for around two and a half years. "The plant's chlorinator developed some fault two and a half years ago and since then the cylinders are not being used." According to him, nine or 10 such cylinders are lying redundant at the filtration plants of HW&SBC.

"The officials of HW&SBC have taken no measures to avoid any untoward incident arising from the gas leakage," he alleged. He further disclosed that at present the HW&SBC was only applying alum to water and no process of exterminating bacteria is being applied.

The corporation is currently applying sodium hypochlorite instead of chlorine to kill bacteria in water even though the process is just around 30% effective in comparison to chlorination. During the visit of Sindh Chief Secretary Syed Asif Hyder Shah to Hyderabad on September 19, the district administration and HW&SBC requested him to approve non-ADP schemes for purchase of chlorinators for Hyderabad.

They pointed out that water filtration is not being done up to the mark because of avoiding of chlorinators. The CS reportedly noted the demand but did not utter any word of assurance. The non-ADP schemes are financed through funds which are not reflected in the budgetary Annual Development Plan (ADP).

The Hala Naka filtre plant was established in 2009 at the cost of Rs460 million. Three months ago the supply of water from Hala Naka became suspended for more than two weeks because of some fault in a 24-inch-pipeline, supplying water to Town Municipal Corporation (TMC) Pareetabad. The 24-inch pipeline became non-functional due to its four defective turbines. Following the public protests, Mayor Kashif Ali Shoro suspended the plant's executive engineer because he kept the authorities in the dark about the pipeline's fault while letting 70% of the TMC suffer from the shortage. However, the XEn returned to his post in no time.

The Mayor and Deputy Commissioner Zainul Abedin Memon visited the plant as well as the LUH where they inquired from patients about their health. However, no word came out from the authorities about taking action or initiating an inquiry against the officials whose negligence might have led to the gas leakage.