KWSB responds to Naegleria monitoring body’s accusations
By our correspondents
August 02, 2015
Karachi The water board has claimed that chlorine added to water “dissolves” while reaching end-users due to long supply route, also declaring that excess chlorine in water could be harmful for the citizens. The Naegleria monitoring committee of Sindh Health Department had accused the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board of not adding chlorine to water at its pumping stations to disinfect the supply, and claiming that the negligence on the utility part resulted in 12 deaths due to Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM) caused by freshwater parasite while cases of diarrhea and cholera were also being reported at various public and private hospitals. The water board, while responding to accusations by the committee that 95 percent of over 2000 water samples collected by it during last two months lacked any traces of chlorine, said on Saturday that it was adding the required amount of chlorine to the water at its pumping stations and instead told the experts to improve their method of sampling of water. “We have established plants of sodium hypochlorite to maintain the level of chlorine to end users. Samples of water to check chlorine in the water should be taken from the pumping stations of the KWSB”, the water utility advised the experts of the Naegleria monitoring committee. On the other hand, the Naegleria monitoring committee comprising officials of health department, experts and doctors had insisted that the KWSB was not adding chlorine to the water, which was evident from the tests of water conducted by them as well as presence of Naegleria fowleri in the water, which had caused the deaths of 12 persons, including four in the month of July alone in Karachi. “We have not done sampling of water to check chlorine after Eid as health department is not providing fuel but earlier 2,000 samples taken in the months of May to July indicated that in 95 percent of cases, chlorine was not present in the water even at KWSB’s pumping stations”, the focal person of KWSB Naegleria monitoring committee said.
