• Sepa finds four out of six filtration plants supplying unsafe water to citizens
• Chlorination effective against poliovirus amid rising cases of crippling disease
• HW&SC chief says they are supplying disinfectants to filtration plants
HYDERABAD: A recent analysis of water samples — taken from the water supplied to the city by the Hyderabad Water & Sewerage Corporation (HW&SC) — has shown that most parts of the city are being provided with raw, untreated, and unchlorinated water that has the potential to cause outbreaks of waterborne diseases, including poliovirus.
Chlorination is one of the effective disinfection methods used to kill viruses, including poliovirus in water supply.
The analysis was done by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) as part of its regular exercise.
It is pertinent to mention that sewage samples collected to check for the presence of poliovirus remained positive in Hyderabad for the month of September. Sindh has reported nine polio cases so far this year.
Keeping in view the grim situation, the fact that the HW&SC’s water supply and drainage lines not only overlap but are also old and broken — thus causing a serious threat of potential mixing of sewage with the drinking water supply — compounds the problem.
The Sepa analysis showed that raw and untreated water was being supplied by these HW&SC filtration plants: eight million gallons per day (MGD) from Hala Naka, eight MGD from Paretabad, five MGD from Ghangra Mori and 5MGD Latifabad unit-4 plant.
The areas served by these water facilities have relatively large populations.
Some of the filtration facilities were upgraded or improved over the last five years when a Supreme Court mandated judicial commission of water and sanitation had made some interventions.
Chlorination in drinking water supply was, however, confirmed at 50MGD filtration plant off Rajputana Road and six MGD Hussainabad water filter plant.
“Sepa officials were told during the visit to filtration plants that chlorination was not being done for want of funds”, said an official.
Following the analysis a few days ago, Sepa is said to have sent letters to the supervising officers of these water filtration plants, in addition to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the HW&SC, to draw their attention to the problem of untreated and unsafe drinking water supply being consumed by the citizens of Hyderabad.
The letters mentioned that the visits by Sepa officials indicated that no mechanism was in place to ensure supply of filtered drinking water to people depended on these filtration facilities.
It said that this situation has potential risk of outbreak of waterborne diseases.
It wanted the HW&SC management and officials to take appropriate measures to ensure clean and filtered water supply.
Sepa teams were told that chlorine was “not available at these filtration facilities” and that was why the process remained incomplete.
It is relevant to mention here that Sepa itself performed only a limited number of tests out of 32 parameters defined for checking drinking water quality.
“Sepa itself has a problem as far as all these 32 parameters are concerned. Budgetary allocation is main problem and that’s why only limited number of tests were done for water quality analysis”, said another official.
Chief Executive Officer of the Hyderabad Water and Sewerage Corporation (HW&SC) Tufail Ahmed Abro said that he would have to check why alum and chlorine were not being used to clean the drinking water supply and added that the HW&SC was providing these two chemicals to their facilities.
When he was informed about Sepa’s letter and test reports which were proving that untreated water was being supplied to a large sections of population, he had no answer.
One HW&SC official disputed the CEO’s claim that the cleaning agents were being supplied to their facilities.
He said that if there had been regular purchases of chlorine from Karachi, then the same should be made public so that people could know that chlorination process was going on without fail at all filtration plants of the corporation.
The environmental sample for wild poliovirus type 1 collected in September tested positive.
This confirms presence of poliovirus in the sewerage system in the city amid claims by the administration that efforts were being made to eradicate poliovirus from Hyderabad where multiple number of cases had been reported.
Leaders of CBA and non CBA workers’ unions of HW&SC have expressed concern over the situation and condemned the supply of untreated drinking water from filtration plants.
The two leaders were highly critical of performance of what they claim “contractual management” of the HW&SC ever-since Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) was upgraded as corporation.
HDA Mazdoor Union (CBA) general secretary Insaf Lashari and Mehran Workers Union Aslam Abbasi criticised the HW&SC for providing untreated water to the people.
They said that this fact was proved by the Sepa reports regarding analysis of water quality.
Mr Abbasi said that supply of water without chlorination clearly points to the fact that no effort was made to kill poliovirus in water through of chlorine.
He said that threat to outbreak of waterborne disease could not be ruled out in the present situation.
Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2025.