Daily Times

KARACHI: At least 30 percent of the water samples collected from parts of the city and tested in government laboratories were found not satisfactorily chlorinated, which adds to the horrors of citizens who are already scarred by the ‘brain-eating’ amoeba or Naegleria Fowleri, officials revealed on Wednesday.

During first half of the current month, May, some 30 per cent of city’s water samples collected from Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Sohrab Goth lacked proper chlorination, a senior health official told Daily Times.

The samples were collected from May 01 by a focal group consisting of many civic agencies as well as the provincial health department. The focal group is meant to be a reporting body which has started collecting and testing the samples. The group’s tasks include keeping chlorine at the ‘desired level’ across the metropolis, which is yet to be achieved.

“The committee has taken around 200 samples of water at random from Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Sohrab Goth areas of the city since May 01,” said Dr Zafar Mehdi, focal person on the government facility for prevention of Naegleria.

30 per cent of the houses from where the samples were taken lacked proper chlorinated water supplied by the KWSB, claimed Dr Zafar Mehdi.

Lack of chlorination provides a formidable habitat to lethal Naegleria fowleri germ, popularly known as ‘brain-eating’ amoeba. It survives on the bacteria in warm waters and enters the human brain through the nasal cavity and eats up brain tissue, leaving no chance of survival.

The deadly virus has so far killed one person in the city during the current year. Last year two people died in Karachi due to brain-eating’ amoeba whereas in 2014 it claimed 14 lives.

The official said the germ could potentially approach the victim’s brain through nasal cavity during ablution at home or in mosques where water supplies were not safely chlorinated. “For rinsing nose during ablution, one needs to use chlorinated or boiled water,” Dr Zafar suggested.

However, official said, the collection of samples so far taken did not represent the whole city and reflected the situation of just two areas.

“This is just the beginning,” said an official. “This should not be taken as the true reflection of the whole city,” Dr Zafar added.

Sighting the example, he said the committee also took samples from Super Highway area mainly from farm houses and swimming pools which are privately owned. Due to hot weather, there is rise in number of visitors.

“We found satisfactory level of chlorination of water during visits at Super Highway,” Dr Mehdi added.

“Problem is not at privately owned farm houses because they maintain the desired chlorine level in the water. Problem is at KWSB supply water which lacks chlorination of water,” he noted.

“In the next phase, we would start inspecting the KWSB pump houses located at different parts of the city”, he announced.