Polluted water continues to kill in Sindh

More than 75 people, mostly children, have been reported dead after drinking polluted water while another 6,600 have been hospitalised over last six weeks across Pakistan's southern province of Sindh, a health activist told IRIN. He also expressed grave concern over the negligence of water and sanitation authorities. "The entire summer season is lying ahead but local municipal authorities have not taken any steps to improve the situation. Contaminated water is continuously being supplied and people are falling ill but no one is bothering to stop this," Dr Ghulam Mustafa Talpur, a water and health activist working with the Pakistan branch of the international developmental NGO, Actionaid, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The first outbreak was reported in the central Sindh district of Shahdadkot in April, where at least six people were killed and another 35 admitted to hospital. Later the upper and central districts of Larkana, Jacobabad, Dadu, Mirpur Khas, Nawabshah, Sanghar, Badin, Ghotki and Sukkur were hit. According to the provincial health department, over 8,300 cases of water-borne disease have been reported across the province in May, with more than 2,700 in Hyderabad district alone, the second largest municipality in the province after Karachi. "About 3,123 patients with diarrhoea and stomach problems have been admitted to hospitals in the last three weeks," Dr Hadi Bux Jatoi, director general of the health department of Sindh told IRIN from Hyderabad on Tuesday. "We are treating the people, whoever comes to us. What else we can do, since the provision of clean water doesn't fall under our mandate?" Dr Jatoi asked IRIN helplessly. Health activists attribute the crisis to a lack of action from the urban and rural administrations responsible for distribution of drinking water. A water quality analysis report produced by the Aga Khan University (AKU) Karachi earlier this month revealed traces of human excrement in water samples collected from different districts in Hyderabad city, according to the Lahore-based newspaper, The Daily Times. The analysis showed that waste and water supply pipes laid underground decades ago had ruptured in many places meaning people were drinking water contaminated with sewage. "This is entirely a governance problem. Why are the authorities responsible for this crisis not being interrogated? Can they not just ensure the cleanliness of water sources through filtration plants?" Mohsin Babbar working at an Islamabad-based policy advocacy body, the Sustainable Development and Policy Institute (SDPI), told IRIN. Meanwhile, the Sindh health department has been running a mass health education programme through advertisements on local radio and television networks, encouraging people to boil water before drinking or using it for cooking. "We've despatched mobile teams as well to the remote rural areas," Dr Jatoi said.