The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday set up a one-man judicial commission to investigate the causes of poor sanitary conditions and the shortage of potable water in Sindh.
While hearing a petition at its Karachi registry, a two-judge bench comprising of Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Mushir Alam, mandated the commission to find faults within the system leading to the lack of a safe drinking water supply, and sewerage and solid waste management services, and to suggest remedies.
The bench was hearing a constitutional petition filed by Advocate Shahab Usto seeking directives to the authorities to provide safe drinking water and a clean environment to the people.
The apex court directed the Sindh High Court chief justice to nominate a sitting judge within a week to head the commission. The commission is to complete its proceedings and submit its findings within six weeks, the order said.
Provincial Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon and other provincial and municipal authorities presented themselves before the court and submitted their reports.
They informed the judges that they were making serious efforts to ensure a potable water supply and a clean environment in the province.
Earlier, the petitioner from Shikarpur, submitted that the Sindh government had established the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation (NSUSC) in 2009-10 for delivering clean water supply, and sewerage and solid waste management services in eight districts of upper Sindh including Sukkur, New Sukkur, Rohri, Khairpur, Larkana, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Ghorki but the same has not benefited the public at large in these districts.
“The organisation was established by obtaining a loan of Rs500 million dollars from the Asian Development Bank. The provincial government failed to provide safe drinking water to the public. Instead, subsoil water, which the locals of these districts had to consume, is contaminated and not fit for human consumption,” the petitioner maintained.
The court earlier observed that the issue raised was directly concerned with the provision of fundamental rights of the people living not only in the eight mentioned districts but also in lower Sindh.
