WASA says it is providing safe water

Wasa told LHC that it was providing potable water to citizens through more than 460 tube wells.

LAHORE: The Water and Sanitation Authority (Wasa) on Tuesday told Lahore High Court (LHC) that it was providing potable water to citizens through more than 460 tube wells. It said the water supply was safe in all respects.

Dr Javed Iqbal , the Wasa managing director, gave the assurance in a written reply to two petitions before the LHC regarding high arsenic concentration in water pumped by Wasa’s tube wells.

Advocates Mateenul Haq and Muhammad Sohail Dar filed petitions pointing out that due to the polluted drinking water people of the city were suffering from hepatitis and other diseases.

The petitioners said that the Punjab government had provided funds to the Wasa for providing safe drinking water to the citizens but the allocations had lapsed due to negligence on the part of the authorities concerned.

Responding, the Wasa MD said water was being supplied to consumers through a network of ductile iron, cast iron, asbestos cement and high density polyethylene and poly-vinyl chloride pipelines. He said the entire system was regularly disinfected through chlorination.

The Wasa, he said, had installed generators on many tube wells to ensure reliable water supply. Dr Javed Iqbal said 150 filtration plants had been set up the city.

The Wasa had also laid 706.60 kilometres water pipeline in the city at an expenditure of Rs927.294 million and upgraded its laboratory at a cost of Rs1.66 million,the managing director (MD) told the court. The MD prayed to the court to dismiss the petitions, insisting that all the allegations levelled by the petitioners were baseless.

The chief justice of the Lahore High Court Khawaja Muhammad Sharif directed the petitioner-lawyers to file their rejoinder by September 8.

Earlier, that Wasa had submitted a preliminary report confirming arsenic in water pumped by most of its tube wells beyond the permissible concentration.

The chief justice had taken suo motu notice of a report, which stated that the Environmental Protection Department had determined that out of 392 Wasa tube wells tested as many as 253 were supplying arsenic-contaminated water.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th, 2010.