42 Landhi, Korangi residents hospitalised after using bad water

KARACHI: A sudden outburst of abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea gripped several settlements in Landhi and Korangi towns on Monday morning and 42 people, including 24 children and six women were taken to hospital. Water contamination was suspected.

According to residents, they are supplied water at 11:00 am every day. On Monday, right after consuming the water, some of them started to get sick. The news spread like wildfire and several officials of the Sindh health department rushed to the affected colonies that included Kashmir Colony, Bengali Para and Sherpao Colony.

The health officials managed to send 41 patients to hospital. Landhi Town Health Officer Dr Khalid Ghauri said that 30 patients were taken to Sindh Government Hospital, Korangi and 11 of them were taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC). “Most of them have been discharged and luckily we have no casualties,” said Dr Ghauri, adding that the problem occurred because they had no sanitation in the slum.

Most of the people in these areas get their supply from illegal water connections that cross with sewerage lines, health officials said.

In Karachi, municipal sewage is a major source of contamination and unplanned settlements tend to suffer the most as drinking water and sewage mix. According to the National Conservation Strategy, almost 40 per cent of the total deaths in Pakistan are related to water-borne diseases.

Sewerage lines are not the only problem in Korangi and Landhi. They are hazardously close to industrial waste.

Demonstration against water scarcity

The residents of Mehmoodabad held a demonstration against water shortages on Monday. They shouted slogans outside the water board on Shahrae Faisal. They residents said that the water supply had been cut off for the past seven months and they had asked the local bodies minister to help them.

SITE’s water quota increased

The Karachi Water & Sewerage Board has increased the daily quota of water supply for SITE Industrial Area from 2 million gallons per day (MGD) to 5MGD.

PPI reports that Minister for Commerce and Industries Rauf Siddiqui asked SITE MD Abul Rasheed Solangi to meet water board officials to resolve the problem.

Solangi had asked for 8MGD to be provided but the water board agreed to 5MGD. More than 3,000 industries have been battling a shortage of water.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2010.