KARACHI, March 21: While the World Water Day is being observed on Monday (today) across the globe, no major event - seminar, conference, discussion, etc. - has been organized at government level in this mega city.

What the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) could do for this occasion is the release of a report on the quality analysis of drinking water supplied through tap, along with a warning that high level of biological contamination was present in it.

Karachi is provided with about 550 million gallons of water every day from two major sources - Indus River and Hub reservoir. Officials of the KWSB, the sole water supply agency in the city, maintain that the piped water is of an acceptable quality. Water, both from Indus and Hub, is given chlorine treatment to ensure that it is safe and fit for human consumption.

Since 1993, the UN-sponsored World Day for Water is observed with the consideration that efforts towards water conservation and sustainable management required public awareness at local, national, regional and international levels.

According to a UN study, while the world population continues to surge, the availability of freshwater is on the decline and in the next two decades, many of the countries in South Asia, Middle East and Africa would face a crunch.

Water contaminated with faecal, bacteria, parasites and other microbes causes about 6,000 deaths every day. The deaths so far include 1.4 million children under the age of five, the study included.

According to water management sources, the previous spell of rain and floods in Pakistan has slightly improved the surface water availability situation in the country. But quarters in Sindh are still not satisfied with the discharge of Indus River in the deltaic region.

The reduced quantity of outflow and discharge of the nutrient-rich sediments load of the Indus River has caused an intrusion of seawater towards up-land areas under phenomena of seawater-freshwater interactive imbalance.

At present, almost all the freshwater distributaries have no link with the Indus River as revealed from the satellite imagery. Consequently, the seawater has invaded and replaced the disconnected older distributaries as creeks of the Arabian Sea.

This change literally diminishes livestock and vegetation on land and fish and other edible marine varieties and rich mangroves forest in the sea, said Prof Nayyer Alam Zaigham of the University of Karachi, in his last study on River Indus.

Taking stock of the water supply situation in Karachi, experts viewed that the city needed about 750mgd water as per international standardand as such there existed a gap of about 200mgd between the demand and supply. They further expressed the view that the level of contamination in surface water from Indus system was increasing due to unchecked pollution at source.

Scientists have found that with the zero discharge down the Kotri Barrage, the total dissolved solids in Indus water rose steeply and reached the limits of 3200ppm at Sujawal Bridge, while the WHO had recommended the safe limit of 500ppm.

They suggested that water quality could be improved with adequate use of chemical agents, including chlorine and iodine, and promotion of solar radiation treatment for water disinfection in rural areas, including deserts of Tharparkar, Cholistan and other Arid region where potable water is available in very little quantity and that, too, contaminated most of the time.

The Sepa had conducted a random sampling of drinking water from various areas of Karachi. It collected 52 samples from schools, hospitals, housing units, etc., and found that almost all of those deviated from 11 most important WHO parameters of drinking water.

As a result of the deviation, cases pertaining to diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery, suspected cholera, suspected viral hepatitis, respiratory infections and scabies were reported at hospitals in a considerable number which appeared a source of concern, adds a Sepa communication.

The Sepa had collected samples from Korangi, Landhi, Malir, Quaidabad, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Federal B Area, Garden, Golimar and Lyari areas, while the analyzed parameters included PH, TDS (total dissolved solids), TSS (total suspected solids), chloride, chlorine, coliforms, turbidity, colour, sodium, sulphate and sulphide.

The agency, which found the parameters comparatively on higher side, has now advised people to boil the water at least for 15 to 20 minutes before consumption, in order to mitigate some of its adverse effects.

The Deputy MD (technical services) of the KWSB, Suleman Chandio, says that quantity of impurities or turbidity in piped water is 'negligible' and that the citizens are provided safe and hygienic water.

However, independent quarters suggest that claims of Sepa and KWSB could be judged only when a joint system of sample collection from water mains, reservoirs and underground and overhead tanks is evolved and the samples are tested. They also urge that a baseline data on the quality of piped and sub-soil water, being consumed by citizens, be prepared for any comparative work in future.

IUCN: The IUCN Pakistan, an NGO, says that the theme for the World Water Day 2004 is Water and Disasters which refers to the two natural water-related disasters - flood and drought. It says that over the past 50 years, Pakistan has suffered a cumulative financial loss of Rs380 billion in terms of damage caused to infrastructure, agriculture, as well as rural/urban property and public utilities. This loss, it adds, is apart from the considerable loss of 6,000 lives on account of major floods.