A majority of resident of the federal capital are getting polluted water from tube wells, as most of these wells have been set up in the city by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) along the banks of polluted streams.
The CDA has installed around 187 tube wells across the city aimed at providing clean drinking water to the citizens. A majority of the tube wells in the city is located at the banks of streams and seepage of water from these streams cause contamination of water.
“On one hand, polluted streams contaminate tube well water and on the other hand the CDA’s relevant directorate does not conduct chlorination of tube wells,” a senior CDA official said.
The official said the total number of streams in Islamabad was 16 and most of the nullahs in the city presented a horrid look because of the presence of huge amount of garbage and sewerage waste in them.
Broken sewerage lines laid by the CDA that pass through these streams not only mar the beauty of the city, but also continuously contaminate tube wells’ water.
“Due to CDA’s negligence in maintenance and sanitation, the condition of streams in the city is deteriorating with each passing day,” he said.
The CDA official said the existing sources of water for urban areas of Islamabad were solely dependant on rain and ground water. These sources include Simly Dam on Soan River, Khanpur Dam on Korang River and water from tube wells.
He said the CDA had made several plans for cleaning and beatification of streams in the last few years, but the relevant department of CDA did nothing in this regard. “With connivance of CDA’s directorate concerned, the catchments areas of these nullahs have been covered by residents of kachi abadis,” he said.
The official said residents of these kachi abadis were not only dumping waste in these nullahs but also violating prescribed limits that continuously curtailed the size of these watercourses.
The huge amount of pollutants in these nullahs and small size of streams were creating hurdle in the flow of water, which cause seepage into tube wells, the official said.
He said pollutants not only hampered water flow but also disturbed the environment of the federal capital.
Another reason of rising level of pollutant in the city is the CDA failure to place proper sewerage system along selected kachi abadis, he added.
According to a report by the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), contamination caused hepatitis, typhoid, dysentery, diarrhoea and cholera, while presence of arsenic in water was a cause of cancer (bladder, skin, prostrate, kidney, nose and liver), diabetes, kidney diseases, hypertension, heart ailments, birth defects and black foot diseases. Excess sodium also caused hypertension.
The quality of drinking water is deteriorating continuously due to biological contamination caused by human waste, the report pointed out, adding that 45 percent infant deaths were caused by diarrhoea and about 60 percent due to overall infectious water-borne diseases.
