Daily Times

The shadows of misery and death are set to loom in Thar once again, as the gushing stream of clean water, provided to people through water filtration plants, known as solar-operated Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants, is going to end soon.

The reason is that the government has stopped funding and renewing contracts with water engineering company, Pak Oasis, which installed more than 650 filtration plants in the district. After the outstanding dues surged to approximately Rs 800 million, necessarily needed to be paid by the government,along with the pending renewal of contracts over the last eight months, the company has lost all options but to shut down the RO plants.

The impoverished locals are unnerved over the brewing crisis. Both Hindu and Muslim communities, which account for 1.65 million population in Tharparkar, are in a state of deep quandary. They know if they protest against the highhandedness of the authorities, their lives will be made more miserable and staying quiet is not an option either. Therefore, these destitute are just waiting for imminent deaths. This symbolises their acute sense of helplessness.

Over the last four to five years, when a number of RO plants did not bless the region, and the brackish water was the only option, thousands of minors died, and expectant mothers suffered health hazards. The water-starved community fell prey to diseases and animals perished in approximately 5000 villages of Thar.

Water woes were averted after hundreds of RO plants sprang into action to supply potable water. It is highly unfortunate that it is about to end soon. The despicable indifference from the authorities has led to the discontinuation of funds, highly mandatory for RO plants operation and maintenance. In the wake of funds scarcity, Pak Oasis issued alerts and gave many wake-up calls to officials and departments, but they fell on deaf ears.

The government promised but failed to fulfil funding commitments. Despite this attitude from the government, the company continued to finance the plants through its meagre resources.

When the former president Asif Ali Zardari rolled out the mega RO plant in Misri Shah area of Mithi, he promised to provide clean water to entire Tharparkar before the 2018 elections.

The mega solar-powered RO plants set up in Mithi have been supplying two million gallons water daily. So far, the company has made functional more than 600 solar-operated RO plants that have been providing 15000 gallons each per day. Each RO plant caters daily water demand of nearby three to four villages. Each village boasts 20 to 30 housing units. Water is also serving multiple purposes relating to irrigation, cultivation and livestock. It has also increased land fertility as well as animal husbandry.

Leave the installation of 750 new plants aside, approximately 45 filtration plants have gone haywire due to the unavailability of funds. As monitory hitches are the order of the day, more filtration plants are about to be shut down in coming days.

The Sindh bureaucracy admitted, via letter no DC/RO 4657, saying: “The basic hurdle in this exercise was the some what deliberate unavailability of budgetary provisions and financial aspects. Officials of parent agency (Sindh Coal Authority) were frequently asked about official documents regarding budgeting and finance, but same were not provided except verbal communication.

After Pak Oasis’s operational and maintenance (O&M) payments swelled, Sindh bureaucracy planned to take over RO plants to run them through local governments. However, the step had to be aborted after assistant commissioner Mithi observed that the local government lacked (O&M) capacity and technical proficiency.

In 2016, when the ordeal of impure water made the headlines, the Supreme Court of Pakistan formed a Judicial Enquiry Commission (JEC). JEC submitted a report after an eight-week probe, which revealed that all filter and treatment plants were out of order in Sindh. It claimed that provincial authorities spent Rs. 29 billion on 1337 schemes of water supply and drainage during the last five years, while 582 of water supply and drainage schemes out of 1337 were non-functional.

A study of Pakistan Medical Research Council, published in ‘Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine’ in 2015, says that HBV and HCV (water-borne diseases) have increased to 2.5 percent and 5 percent respectively in Sindh.

Leave the installation of 750 new plants aside, approximately 45 filtration plants have gone haywire due to the unavailability of funds. Given the apathy from the administration, the rest are likely to face the same fate, leaving the locals helpless

Tharparkar is one of the poorest districts of the country, with the lowest Human Development Index. The region bordering the Indian states of Rajasthan and Gujarat has been witnessing less rainfall and drought for many consecutive years. People never demand any amenities other than potable water.

Campaigns were launched to tarnish the image of the operating company, claiming that the water being supplied to RO plants was unclean and contaminated. Later, it came to light that water from the origin at RO plant in Mithi was safe and fit for human consumption. It was contaminated where plant’s pipes were connected to a local water-supplying network installed by the TMOs.

God knows better whether or not the emerging humanitarian crisis is going to be prevented. The administration is hell-bent on converting Thar into a land of zombies by winding down the sources of life for the poor of the region.

The writer is a fellow of the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) and is a recipient of China-friendly Netizen 2017 award. E-mail: yaseerkhan@hotmail.com;Twitter @yasirkhann

Published in Daily Times, February 2^nd 2018.