LAHORE – The Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry on Wednesday summoned Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) managing director for April 19 in a suo motu case and petitions against presence of arsenic in the city’s tubewells.
Former CJ Khawaja Muhammad Sharif had taken suo motu notice last year and Advocates Mateenul Haq and Muhammad Sohail Dar had filed writ petitions pointing out that citizens were suffering from hepatitis and other diseases after drinking contaminated water. LHC CJ took notice of the non-appearance of WASA MD and warned legal advisor of the authority that chief secretary will be summoned if the MD failed to appear on next hearing.
Environmental protection department through a report revealed that out of 392 tubewells, as many as 253 were supplying arsenic contaminated water. WASA replied that the water was being supplied to consumers through a network of distribution system made up of ductile iron, cast iron, asbestos cement and high density polyethylene and poly-vinyl chloride pipelines. And this system was regularly disinfected through chlorination.
Wasa has installed generators on many tubewells to prevent adulteration of substances that caused contamination while expert chemists check quality of the water on daily basis.
