Show Sindh’s filth to its lawmakers: SC

Apex court orders video of judicial commission’s visit to potable water supply and sewage sites be shown in provincial assembly so that people’s

representatives can see govt’s failure

The Supreme Court ordered on Friday that the video of its judicial commission’s visit to various potable water supply and sewage sites in the province be sent to the Sindh Assembly speaker for arranging its viewing in the House so that the people’s representatives could see how the government had failed to supply clean dinking water and provide a decent sewerage system to the citizens and also how untreated municipal and industrial waste was being dumped in rivers, lakes and sea.

Issuing a detailed judgement on a petition about the provision of clean drinking water and a safe environment to the citizens of Sindh, a three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim also took exception to the poor performance of the irrigation department in preventing the dumping of waste in water canals.

The court observed that the irrigation secretary had told the judicial commission that he has failed to discharge his duties because of the hindrances created by the local administration.

It noted that municipal, medical and industrial waste was discharged in rivers, channels and canals and this criminal act on the part of the irrigation department had caused outbreaks of many waterborne diseases including cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, gastroenteritis and diarrhoea and skin diseases.

The court observed that the environmental hazard was multiplying the woes of Sindh’s poor residents, who were left with no option but to drink polluted, contaminated water.

The court directed the irrigation department to immediately minimise pollution in the channels used for supplying drinking water to the public. It added that the task forced formed for this purpose would immediately take remedial steps to prevent the disposal of waste in water channels and submit its progress to the judicial commission within a month.

KWSB

The court observed that the citizens of Karachi were being put at even more risk because of the dumping of raw sewage into the sea – contaminating its beaches and destroying marine life.

The court noted that the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board appeared oblivious to the fundamental rights of citizens, including the right to have uncontaminated water to drink which can be considered the bedrock of the right to life (Article 9 of the Constitution).  

The court observed that rivers and other water channels in Karachi had also been unred into open sewers and if not rectified immediately, this state of affairs might lead to an epidemic of infectious diseases.

The court directed the task force to ensure that all the filter, treatment and sewerage plants in Sindh including those in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Kotri were made functional and detailed periodical reports submitted to the commission.

The court also ordered task force to make all incinerators at government hospitals functional as per the undertaking given by the health secretary.

RO plants

The court taking notice of the sad state of affairs of the reverse osmosis plants functioning in the province directed the government to withdraw the installation and maintenance work of these plants from the special initiative department and the Sindh Coal Authority and assign it to the public health engineering and rural development department as mandated under the rules of business.

SSWMB

The court taking notice of the functioning of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board and the waste disposal agreement with the a Chinese firm and observed that the provincial government was paying salaries to the sanitary workers of local bodies and in addition also paying additional money to the Chinese company to collect solid waste from the front end and transport it to the transit point.

The court observed that there was nothing on record to show that the board or the local government had even marked or allocated a landfill site for the disposal of solid waste that had to be transported from the transit point and this matter must be attended to immediately.

The court observed that if the SSWMB was allowed to exist, it would be a permanent liability for the provincial government.

It noted that the Sindh government was the trustee of the public money and accountable for the amounts it spent on schemes.

The court observed that introducing an arrangement with a Chinese company for the disposal of waste without any infrastructure would multiply problems in Karachi.

The court observed that report of the judicial commission on water and sanitation was a charge sheet against various government departments including the SSWMB which had failed to deliver even though its management was drawing millions of rupees in salaries.

The court observed that running a parallel organisation to perform the same function led to bad governance and a lack of responsibility and accountability, which was sadly the order of the day as clearly demonstrated from the material collected by the judicial commission and by viewing the recordings.

The court observed that experiments should come to an end now and the non-functional board which had never performed should be dissolved by transferring its functions to the local bodies as provided under the rules of business as by doing such exercise the woes of the residents of the province’s cities would be alleviated and it would also prevent the waste of public money.  The court observed that the judicial commission it had formed would continue to work with all such powers conferred on it as the issues in these proceedings directly affected the life and health of the public of Sindh.

The court also ordered that the judicial commission would ensure compliance of its directives and also take steps to see that the task force formed by the Sindh government complied with the recommendations contained in the report.

The court also restrained Sindh government from transferring either the chief secretary or any other member of the task force without prior approval of the court unless a member’s three-year tenure period had completed.