KARACHI- Sindh’s largest children hospital, National Institute of Child Health (NICH), Karachi, is devoid of clean drinking water, due to which the patients and medical staff is left with no choice, but to drink contaminated water, as no potable water supply is available within the facility.
Sources at NICH disclosed that, contaminated water is being supplied to different wards of the hospital, increasing the possibilities of outbreaks of waterborne diseases among visiting patients, medical and helping staff. The hospital is said to function without a water treatment plant, and the underground and overhead water tanks of the institution have not been cleaned for several months.
Around 2000 to 2500 children from Karachi, interior Sindh and Baluchistan province visit different OPDs of the hospital for treatment, on a regular basis. Due to the current water situation, poor and needy patients and their attendants are compelled to drink polluted water from the hospital’s underground water reservoir. To avoid consuming untreated water, majority are compelled to purchase mineral water from medical stores.
Although the hospital administration had installed a few filter plants to provide clean drinking water, but those plants were also found to be non-functional.
The continuous consumption of contaminated water is a threat to hundreds of patients and employees of the health facility.
Director, National Institute of Child Health (NICH), Prof Jamal Raza was not available for comments.