Karachi: Water rife with lethal bacteria, reveals KWSB’s own tests

Declaring the water being supplied to Karachi “unfit for human consumption”, the water utility’s chief chemist has claimed that the commodity not only contained chemical impurities but also lethal bacteria, including E coli and coliforms, found in sewage.

The Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB) had collected water samples from six different parts of the city after two locals died of a Naegleria fowleri (brain-eating amoeba) infection last month.

When the samples were analysed for chemical and microbiological contamination at the KWSB’s own lab, they were found extremely tainted and unfit for human consumption, reveal the analysis reports obtained by The News.

N fowleri had claimed the life of 55-year-old Suhail Tabassum, a resident of Al-Noor Society in Federal B Area’s Block 19, on June 26, while 29-year-old Ali Amjad, a resident of KDA Scheme No 1, died on June 28.

Following the two deaths, the KWSB was criticised by different quarters for providing contaminated water to the city and not chlorinating it at the utility’s pumping stations. Chlorination is the only effective method to disinfect water supplied in bulk quantities.

The censure compelled the water board to conduct an immediate analysis of the quality of water it was supplying to the unsuspecting citizens of Karachi. Water samples were collected from two mosques in KDA Scheme No 1, where Amjad used to go for prayers, a lawn and the man’s neighbourhood.

Their analysis at the COD Hills lab of the KWSB showed that all the samples were highly contaminated, contained chemical impurities as well as deadly bacteria found in faeces. It also showed that none of the four samples contained even traces of chlorine, which was required to be present in the water when it reached the consumers for effectively killing bacteria and other deadly microorganisms, including N fowleri.

Similarly, water samples collected from the Sakhi Hassan hydrant and Al-Noor Society in FB Area revealed that the commodity contained E coli and coliforms, indicating that sewage had mixed with water but the KWSB had not purified it before supplying it to the citizens.

Karachi gets 90 per cent of its water from the Keenjhar Lake, which is located some 160 kilometres away from the city, through an open canal. The water needs to be filtered and purified so that the citizens could be saved from water-borne diseases.

The KWSB is supposed to add chlorine to the water at the pumping stations to kill the microorganisms found in it, for which it spends millions of rupees annually, but the chemical and microbial analysis by the utility itself has revealed absence of chlorine.

“People in Karachi mostly use boiled, bottled or filtered water for drinking so they are relatively safe from most of the water-borne diseases, but whenever they drink tap water they contract diseases like diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, hepatitis and typhoid. N fowleri has emerged as another challenge for the city due to poor performance of KWSB officials,” said Dr Zafar Mehdi, the focal person for the N fowleri monitoring committee.