The MD was summoned in a suo motu hearing about the presence of arsenic in water supply from most tube wells of the city.
Wasa’s deputy managing director (Admin) Abdul Hameed was present in the court on Wednesday but expressed his inability to answer the queries of the lawyers. He said that he was in charge of the administrative affairs, adding that the managing director would be better able to assist the court in this regard. At this, Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Shareef directed the Wasa MD to appear in person on the next hearing.
Advocate Muteen ul Haq, who filed a petition in the case, had earlier informed the court that people of Lahore were falling sick due to the consumption of polluted/impure drinking water. Another petitioner, Muhammad Sohail Dar, pointed out that the Punjab government had given funds to Wasa to ensure the provision of clean drinking water, “but these funds lapsed due to negligence on part of the concerned authorities,” Dar said.
In this case, the Wasa MD Dr Javed Iqbal had already submitted a preliminary report confirming that most of the tube wells were contaminated by arsenic beyond the permissible concentration.
The LHC CJ had taken suo motu notice on a news item, about a report of the Environment Protection Department that revealed that out of the 392 tube wells, as many as 253 were supplying arsenic contaminated water, posing serious health hazards to citizens.
During the last hearing, Wasa had informed the court that it had taken samples from 183 tube wells and gotten them tested by the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
All the samples contained toxic levels of arsenic; the agency had informed the court.
An agency representative had also told the court that the Punjab government had been informed about it and had instructed the Local Government Department to work on its ‘Clean drinking water for all’ project.
He added that as part of the project, water filtration and purification plants had been installed at 150 union councils of the city. The Wasa representative had also asked the court to adjourn the case until September 3, saying that the chemical used to test water samples had to be ordered from Karachi.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2010.
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