—Samples of contaminated water from Rawal Dam expired; WASA restarted water supply before tests being conducted
ISLAMABAD: Islamabad police has confirmed on Tuesday that after registering the case against ‘local mafia’ for pouring poison in the water which killed tonnes of fishes on Friday, 3 different samples of 5 litre water and 6 fishes were sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Laboratory (PFSL) on Monday after 4 days, due to which samples have expired.
However curiously, without getting a clean chit from CDA laboratory and PFSL, WASA has restarted the water supply on last Sunday morning to Rawalpindi, putting four million people in danger.
Sources have revealed that Islamabad Secretariat Police, due to criminal negligence, have failed to send the samples on time; due to the lapse of almost 4 days, samples taken in airtight bottles were expired and now police are passing the buck.
When contacted, ASI Imran said that a FIR was registered against locals, lodged by Punjab Fisheries Department Fisheries Deputy Director Mohammad Sadiq Buzdar on Friday evening, but because of non-working days ahead, the police did not send them for tests on Saturday and Sunday. He said that 3 samples were taken, one from Rawal Dam’s entrance, one from spillway and one from Lake View [front side]; similarly, 6 fishes were sampled from different parts of the dam and sent to PFSL on Monday afternoon.
On repeated requests, he said that no one knows when the laboratory will issue or send the test reports. ‘I don’t know how much time they will take, probably they can eat month on that account,’ he briefed.
“There is a tough and lengthy procedure to send any sample for tests, as it requires the approval of SSP sahib (who was not available then and there, due to whom police have put millions of lives in danger), after a proposal from a legal branch,” he described.
‘On the other hand, WASA restarted water supply to four million residents of Rawalpindi as they don’t have any other alternative option…which may lead to another bloody untoward incident and raise many eyebrows,’ said a police officer requesting anonymity, adding that authorities of the twin cities should have taken prompt action on this sensitive issue rather than opening an enquiry after any incident.
It is noted that Rawal Dam supplies 24 million gallons of water to the residents of Rawalpindi on a daily basis.
Muhammad Umer, WASA’s spokesperson, however, claimed that residents of Rawalpindi should use the water without any fear after the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) declared the water fit for human consumption.
Samples of the dead fish, meanwhile, were sent to the National Agriculture Research Council (NARC) and the Punjab Forensic Science laboratories in Lahore, and their results are still awaited.
Member Planning at CDA Asad Mehboob Kayani said that the water quality was not of the desired standard as the results of the water turbidity test were not satisfactory.
Turbidity is the measure of the relative clarity of any liquid, and in lakes and reservoirs, high turbidity can reduce the amount of light that reaches the lower depths, inhibiting the growth of aquatic plants and affecting the species of fish that are dependent on them.
He said that the authority is also waiting for the results of the coliform bacteria test, which plays a key role in testing the quality of water.
Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Captain Mushtaq Ahmed said that there are several local groups which are fighting each other over a fishing contract, so there are speculations that someone could have mixed some substance in the water which was harmful to the fish but not for human beings.
It is pertinent to mention here that in the application of fisheries department [to Islamabad police], they stated that the accused were engaged in illegal fishing and boating activities in Rawal Dam.
They mentioned that on their request, local police had carried out an operation against this mafia, during which 20 boats were confiscated and five people were arrested.
The department said that following the operation, the local mafia threatened us that they would contaminate and intoxicate the water to endanger the fish and public at large.