Another Naegleria Fowleri-induced death at a hospital in the Sindh metropolis has enhanced public reservations about claims of proper chlorination of water supplied to them.
The ailment caused by the brain eating amoeba has caused 10 deaths in the province during current year with 23-year-old Owais, son of Sher Muhammad, being the last victim.
Officials, on condition of anonymity, have confirmed that 95 percent of the pumping stations in the metropolis were found applying inadequate proportion of chlorine in the water treatment process.
Against the standard chlorine value of 1.5 ppm to 02 ppm, only 10 of the total 432 water pumping stations in Karachi were found to have been applying standard 02 ppm another 16 using 1.5 ppm.
Some 18 of the pumping stations in the metropolis were found using nil chlorine, 19 using 0.75 ppm, 21 using 01 ppm, 265 using 0.50 ppm, 65 using 0.25 ppm and 18 using 0.15 ppm.
Moreover, orders of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) managing director to increase the existent 11 chlorine booster to 22 boosters could not get materialized due to reasons known to authorities only. This again is a scenario where KWSB has reportedly also raised its budget for water chlorination. Government authorities as well as medical practitioners were also witnessed advising citizens to purchase chlorine on their own and use it to treat water supplied to them by the board. Claims have also been made for free of cost distribution of chlorine tablets among the citizens.
