Lower Sindh faces health hazards

By Amar Guriro

The discharge of heavily contaminated domestic and industrial waste into Phuleli Canal in Hyderabad continues unabatedly and no relevant authority has taken notice of the grave threat this situation poses.

A large portion of the province, particularly the lower Sindh, has brackish and saline underground water due to the influence of the sea and water shortage in the Indus River.

Phuleli Canal is one of the important canals of River Indus that provides potable water to more than three million human population of three major districts in lower Sindh along with the Akram Wah (also known as Lined Channel).

During a recent visit to the canal, this scribe found several illegal outlets pouring sewerage water into it. Since there is no restriction whatsoever regarding the disposal of waste in these canals, there are dozens of drainage outlets from the entire Hyderabad city.

The discharging of untreated sewage, garbage, industrial waste, effluent from laundry factories, cattle excreta from hundreds of cattle farms established on the banks of the canal, and waste products from hospitals and slaughterhouses into the an area over 20-km of Phuleli Canal and partly into the Lined Channel.

According to Badin Development and Research Organisation (BDRO), an organisation working on water contamination, all the hospital waste from Hyderabad city’s 40 main sewer nullahs.

Beside that there are effluents from 1,000 big laundries, effluent from 500 cattle farms situated on both sides of the canal, toxic waste from 12 plastic factories and domestic sewage. These all sources of pollution are located in Tando Muhammad Khan, Matli and Talhar towns is poured into Phuleli Canal.

“The heavily contaminated sewage and garbage, toxic chemicals, dyes and other heavy metals in the industrial effluents as well as wastes from slaughterhouses and animal excretions have converted these water bodies into poisonous canals,” said BDRO’s Muhammad Khan Samoo.

His organisation, BDRO has recently conducted a laboratory test after taking several water samples from Phuleli Canal and found that the water is highly toxic and not safe for human consumption.

“The recent results of the water samples show that contaminated water is causing abdominal diseases in resident of cities and towns carrying potable water from Phuleli Canal,” said Samoo.

On the other hand, District Nazim Hyderabad Kanwar Naveed Jamil justified the pouring of highly contaminated industrial and domestic waste from Hyderabad city.
“It is not new phenomenon and has been going on since 1947. I am not responsible for the industrial waste in Phuleli Canal and you should ask the people from the related department,” said Nazim.

He added that his government has recently started treatment plants so that sewerage water can be treated and then poured into the canal. “Though Hyderabad is not taking a single bucket of water from this canal but we have planned three major treatment plants for the lower districts purely on humanitarian grounds,” he said while admitting that all the sewerage of Hyderabad city is being poured in the canals or in Indus River.

“I have no idea exactly how much sewerage water is produced daily in the city, as some portion of it is poured in canals and other portions are either poured in Indus River or used for agricultural purposes,” he said.

He maintained that the district governments of district Tando Muhammad Khan and Badin are responsible to arrange the treatment plants for the sewerage water of Hyderabad that is being poured into the Phuleli Canal as they are taking potable water from it.

The federal and provincial government must take serious notice of the activities, which are causing water contamination and must come forward to save the people living in the lower districts of Sindh.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Daily Times

Thirsty monkeys of the city

By Amar Guriro
Photo by Athar Hussain

While standing at a signal, waiting impatiently for the light to turn green, a monkey might have added to your agitation by sitting on your car bonnet or knocking on your window.

You would have ignored him, rudely brushed him off or abused him, depending on how far up your agitation was on the scale. But have you ever seen or even wondered where the juggler and his monkey live?

These jugglers live in Bandar Basti (Monkey Colony), a small slum settlement just behind the PIDC landmark plaza near Hijrat Colony in Sultanabad.

Only a few people are aware of the fact that just opposite the main gate of the Sindh Chief Minister’s House, the most important area of the city with all the five-star hotels and the railway track, this small unique monkey colony exists.

It is a gypsy colony and was established a long time ago. The colony is very strange, as it is named Bandar Basti because dozens of monkeys can be seen tied to a pole of the makeshift huts and tents that the gypsies live in.

When entering the colony, gypsy children gather around to welcome you and the women are seen trying their best to forcefully bathe naked children between the old railway tracks.

The male members of the colony listen to legendary Saraiki classical folk singer Pathaney Khan on the stereo while the monkeys take a nap in the tents.

Comprising of over 200 small huts and having a population of 1,800, the colony has no water supply connection and the residents have to beg for water from various nearby slums. The acute water shortage has not only affected the residents of this unique settlement, but even monkeys are suffering from this predicament.

The gypsy residents of the colony, working as jugglers with their monkeys, told this scribe that several monkeys died after consuming contaminated water.

“There is no water line in the area and we beg for water from different slums, but since they are also pumping water and consuming electricity to do so, they have stopped giving us water,” said Zulekha, a gypsy woman. She added that the residents have found a way to collect seepage water from the main water supply line passing beside the colony.

“We don’t know about the quality of the water and we believe that we are gypsies and contamination will do nothing to us, but it is affecting the monkeys,” said another gypsy woman.

The residents of this colony are not permanent residents and are also not from any particular place. There are some families who come from Sukkur, Sanghar, Nawabshah, Hyderabad and other cities of Sindh, whereas some have travelled from Rahimyar Khan, Rajanpur, Mithankot and even Rohi, the land of the legendary Saraiki poet Baba Fareed in southern Punjab.

But being gypsies has tied them into living together. The women sell toys and bangles whereas the male members take moneys to juggle on the main roundabouts and markets of the city.

In absence of a proper sanitation system, the residents have discovered a small pond inside the big sewerage nullah where seepage from a potable water line has gathered. Thus, they get water from there for their daily use. To beat the heat in the summers, most of the residents rush to the sewerage nullah and bathe in the small pond.

“We are gypsies and can live in any type of circumstances, we just need a public water lien from where we can get potable water, we need nothing else from the government,” said Sanwal, an elderly chieftain of the colony.

Officially, there are more than 400 registered slums in the city, where legally or illegally, people have an access to potable water, but authorities have never even peeped into the gypsy colonies to find out how these people are living.

Friday, May 08, 2009
Daily Times