800 patients of water-borne disease treated
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, August 30 2005: As many as 800 people, including children and women, have been given treatment at government hospitals and private clinics since Saturday August 27 following an outbreak of water-borne diseases caused by contaminated water in certain localities of Gulshan Town, said sources in health circles. The diseases have already claimed two lives.
It has been stated that the affected people had consumed the water drawn from the KWSB supply system but it might have mixed with sewage. One Monday August 29, people with complaint of stomach problem continued to report at nearby hospitals and clinics.
A sizable number of households in Mannoo Goth, Noor Mohammad Goth and Essa Nagri of Gulshan Town had started receiving unfit water some five days back, but the adverse affects on human health was felt only when a large number of patients, one after the other, with same or similar problem, reported at a government hospital in Liaquatabad and some other hospitals and clinics on Saturday, said a source.
Children, most of them coughing, and elders suffering from diarrhoea were brought in for treatment, said a doctor at a nearby health care centre organization of a welfare organization.
An official at the JPMC said that two patients, one of them woman, arrived at the hospital on Sunday August 28 with severe diarrhoea. Both of them were discharged after treatment and no other case of such kind was brought from the affected area, he added.
Sindh Health Secretary Dr Naushad A. Sheikh told Dawn that about 500 patients were attended at medical camps set up in the affected area since Saturday night.
“In view of my visit and the reports received from the field staff lately, I can say that contamination of water is not of any higher degree. The number of severe gastroenteritis cases is also on the decline.” He stated that 25 patients had been admitted to Liaquatabad hospital whereas 13 had been discharged after treatment till Monday.
In reply to a question, Dr Sheikh said that water samples from different points, including households and tanks, had been collected for the purpose of testing, being conducted at the health department’s lab, as well as some private labs. Results of the sample tests are likely to be received by Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning.
A resident of one of the affected localities said on Monday night that filthy water was still coming out of the taps in his area, ultimately raising the number of affected consumers. He said that senior official of the KWSB had visited the area during the day, but people did not know if any remedial measures had been taken as yet.
He said that drinking water being supplied to Mannoo Goth, Noor Mohammad Goth and Essa Nagri from the 24-inch main line was passing through a strip close to the Ghani Eleven Football Ground, in Mannoo Goth, Old Sabzi Mandi.
The households in the affected localities were supplied water through the four-inch and six-inch pipelines connected with the 24-inch main, he claimed, and added that the thinner pipelines in shabby condition were passing parallel to the broken sewerage lines at some places. This might have caused the mixing, he apprehended.
When contacted, Chief Engineer (water distribution) of the KWSB Mr Asudomal said that the work for improving the quality of water was undertaken on Monday and was likely to be completed in a couple of days.
Some of the connections responsible for the contamination in the affected area, mainly Mannoo Goth, were dismantled while several loose connections close to sewerage lines, as well as manholes in the lane number 4, 6 and 7, were examined. Efforts for the repair, restoration and improvement work were under way, he said. The quality of water has been improved by 60 to 70 per cent in the area, he claimed.
He said steps were being taken to plug leakages in sewerage lines in the katchi abadis of the affected area.
DIRECTIVE: The caretaker TMO of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Fuzail Ahmed Bukhari, taking notice of the death of two children due to water contamination in UC-4, Essa Nagri, directed KWSB staff to snap all illegal water connections and get the line-leakages plugged, adds PPI.
The KWSB has immediately implemented the directive.
Source: Dawn
Date:8/30/2005
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