Contaminated water raises stink in Civil Hospital

KARACHI: The underground water reservoirs and overhead tanks of government-run hospitals are not being cleaned regularly; therefore, visiting and admitted patients had been compelled to drink contaminated in this health facility.

An official of Sindh’s largest tertiary care hospital, well known as the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), noted that this health facility's underground water reservoirs were not being maintained or cleaned regularly by the hospital’s administration. The visiting and admitted patients have been compelled to drink health-hazardous polluted water.

He said more than 6,000 patients from Karachi, interior Sindh, and Baluchistan provinces visit different hospital OPDs every day. The visiting patients and their attendants have been compelled to drink polluted water of the underground water reservoir, while some patients and their attendants used mineral water to avoid water-borne diseases. This contaminated water was also supplied to various departments of the hospital and staff colony.

The official said that contaminated and polluted consumption could develop water-borne diseases among patients and their attendants. He said people are compelled to purchase mineral water from medical stores for daily consummation.

Similarly, the overhead tanks and underground reservoirs of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Jinnah Hospital Karachi, and other district hospitals were also not being maintained or cleaned for the past several months due to the slackness of the heads of healthcare centers.

Additional Medical Superintendent, Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi, Dr Ismail Memon, chlorination of water is the Infectious Diseases Department's responsibility, and they are regularly cleaning the water tanks.

-MN Report