‘Most public hospitals in Sindh have unsafe water’

A report submitted to the judicial commission investigating the non-provision of potable water, proper sanitation facilities and healthy environment to Sindh’s people shows that most public hospitals in the province have water that is unfit for human consumption.

The Supreme Court-designated commission had directed Senior Research Officer Dr Ghulam Murtaza of the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) to collect drinking water samples from government-run hospitals across the province and test them for quality.

A day earlier, the judicial body was informed that the water being provided at the Peoples Medical College Hospital Shaheed Benazirabad and other establishments is not fit for human consumption.

The commission was also informed that samples of water have been collected from different wards of the hospital and it has been learnt that even the dispensers installed at the health facility provide unsafe water.

Dr Murtaza, who is a member of the judicial body’s task force, said on Tuesday that 85.2 per cent of the 250 water samples collected from public hospitals in 22 districts of the province, including Karachi, are riddled with physicochemical or microbiological contaminants.

The PCRWR officer’s report submitted to the commission stated that 213 of the water samples were found unfit for human consumption, with hospitals in Thatta, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Naushahro Feroze, Dadu, Tando Mohammad Khan, Jacobabad, Sujawal and Shikarpur having a 100 per cent contamination rate.

Only five (16.7 per cent) of the 30 samples collected from different public hospitals in all six districts of Karachi were found fit for human consumption.

On the whole, majority of the samples were found to have objectionable colour and taste, high turbidity, total dissolved solids, total hardness, chloride, sulfate, sodium, potassium, iron and fluoride, and microbiological contaminants.

After taking the report on record, Justice (retd) Amir Hani Muslim directed the provincial health secretary to ensure supply of clean water to all government-run hospitals. He also directed the PCRWR officer to collect more samples to conduct further analyses of the drinking water being supplied at public hospitals across the province.

Accommodation claims

The SC directed the state officer to decide the applications of government employees who were allotted accommodations in Pakistan Quarters and Secretariat Quarters within 10 days.

Hearing an application about irregularities in the allotment of government accommodations at Jehangir Road and Lawrence Road, a two-member bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam observed that only those employees who are in service are entitled to use the accommodations.

The deputy attorney general filed a report stating that 639 accommodations were illegally occupied in Martin Quarters, while 309 and 49 in Patel Para (Garden) and Pakistan Quarters. The court rejected the pleas seeking a stay against ejection notices and directed the state officer to decide the applications within 10 days.