Islamabad: Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP) has condemned the negligent performance of Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) for its failure to ensure access of safe drinking water to the residents of Muslimabad and Landhi in Karachi. CRCP said that the agency had miserably failed to monitor the quality of drinking water, which resulted in the death of eight people and infected many consumers with water-born diseases.
The residents of two localities of Karachi namely Muslimabad and Landhi had been consuming water containing sizeable amounts of coliforms and heavy metals including Nickel. The consumption of contaminated water resulted in death of eight people and infected many consumers of the water. “Muslimabad Water Quality Report” released by SEPA said that the reason behind the deadly contamination of water was the intrusion of waste, both from domestic and industrial sources, from leaks and crakes in the pipes and contamination at the source.
Mian Abrar Hafeez, secretary general CRCP, said that the incident was the worst example of failure of the concerned authorities to provide safe drinking water to citizens. He said that access to clean drinking water was a legally enforceable right of all citizens for which state was responsible to do the needful arrangements. “But unfortunately, up till now no Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act exist in Pakistan” he added. Mr. Abrar Hafeez lamented that most of the population in Pakistan was deprived of safe drinking water despite the availability of very cheap and cost effective methods of water purification. He quoted an analysis of World Health Organization (WHO) according to which only 40% population of Pakistan had access to clean water, whereas 60% population was using water, which was not fit for human consumption.
Mian Abrar Hafeez pointed out that CRCP had received complaints from residents of a number of areas of Karachi dealing with water contamination. He mentioned that residents of Salimabad Karachi had recently complained against contamination of drinking water. CRCP brought this into the notice of concerned authorities but received no reply. “If adequate steps were not taken to redress the complaint, the residents of Salimabad could face the same fate as residents of Landhi had to do”, Mr. Abrar Hafeez warned.
CRCP demanded that water quality tests should be conducted on routine basis and their results made public. Furthermore, CRCP emphasized that enactment of Safe Drinking Water Act followed by efficient implementation could bring about significant improvement in the quality of water being provided to citizens.