LARKANA: Despite Supreme Court orders, untreated sewage water continues to be discharged directly into the city’s “clean” water sources, as local authorities have failed to check this habit and ensure people’s health.
Hepatitis and skin diseases are on the rise in Larkana and those affected are living miserably.
The citizens have demanded to be supplied with clean and safe drinking water instead of contaminated canal water.
A report filed in the Supreme Court recently revealed that 88 percent of water being supplied to Larkana citizens is contaminated.
To remove sewage water, the Larkana administration established a pumping station 8 kilometres away from the city near Mashori village where 10 pipes were fitted to drain out 25 cusecs of water per minute each. In this way, 250 cusecs water is being drained out every minute directly into the Rice Canal.
Two other pipes are also present a few furlongs away from this station which also discharges 60 cusecs gutter water per minute without any treatment.
Due to the contamination of water, the quality of underground water has been affected not only in Larkana but also at Dokri, Badah, Bakrani, Mehar and Naseerabad villages.
In addition, people on both sides of the Rice Canal continue to dump their litter straight into the canal. The deputy commissioner has issued warnings against this practice, saying FIRs will be registered against violators, but it continues unimpeded.
In this connection, Larkana Deputy Commissioner Kashif Ali Tipu told reporters that before 2013, sewage water of various schemes was released into the canal. He said that after 2013, Sindh Government approved one drainage scheme to drain all sewage water out of Larkana city and install a treatment and filter plants to make water reusable. He said that effluent water from 28 disposal points was discharged into the canal before the scheme, whereas now the water from 24 disposal points was not going into the canal, and work on other gutter lines was also underway.
