Water supplied to Karachi chlorinated as per WHO standards, says KWSC COO

Responding to back-to-back naegleria deaths in the city in recent weeks, Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) Chief Operating Officer (COO) Engineer Asadullah Khan held a high-level meeting with Sindh Health Director General Abdul Hameed Jumani at the KWSC Secretariat Karsaz on Monday.

Khan maintained that the KWSC was adding chlorine to the water being supplied to the city as per the standards and quantity set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

He added that the water corporation was providing clean and healthy water to the citizens and chlorine was also being added to all tankers leaving the water corporation hydrants. He said the KWSC hydrant cell was fully implementing the required amount of chlorine.

Deputy Director of Health Dr Saqib Ali Sheikh, Head of Sindh WHO Dr Sarah Salman, Unicef representative Dr Shakib Jan, Dr Ghulam Murtaza Arain and other officers attended the meeting.

It was decided that all departments would form a joint group under which steps would be taken to eradicate naegleria and the KWSC in coordination with the Sindh health department would take measures to maintain the required level of chlorination by sampling water in different areas of the city.

The KWSC COO said chlorine was added daily at all the filter plants of the water corporation. All the filter plants, he said, were functioning round the clock for proper chlorination, The KWSC, he said, used about 240 chlorine cylinders per month as per its requirement, and water samples were analysed on a regular basis in various laboratories of the KWSC.

He maintained that special steps were being taken to add chlorine to the water at the nearby pumping stations and boosting stations in remote areas of the city where there was no chlorine in water for any reason.

He said strict legal action would be taken against those selling harmful and contaminated water. The KWSC COO advised citizens to use only water corporation-approved water tankers. He said the KWSC along with other related departments of the Sindh government was engaged in the fight against naegleria.

“If we all follow all these precautions, we can be 100 per cent protected from this dangerous bacteria,” he said. Khan requested the citizens to take precautionary measures to protect themselves from naegleria. He stressed that all citizens must clean their overhead and underground water storage tanks every month. He forbade bathing in unchlorinated swimming pools, ponds, reservoirs, and springs. He asked citizens to use chlorine tablets in water with expert advice and use boiled or chlorinated water for ablutions, bathing or cleaning the nose.