Gilgit residents have complained regarding the polluted water they had been consuming for years. Besides, Shahzad Shigri, director to the secretary home, Gilgit-Baltistan Environmental Protection Agency (GBEPA) even wrote a letter in which he has condemned the spoilt water his people had been drinking.
Gilgit town residents have complained regarding the polluted water they had been consuming for several years past till now. Beside, Shahzad Shigri director to the secretary home, Gilgit-Baltistan Environmental Protection Agency (GBEPA) even wrote a letter in which he has condemned the spoilt water his people had been drinking.
Shahzad writes that the water being supplied to inhabitants of Gilgit city from Burmas and Jutial water supply complexes, domestic water taps in different locations and community water taps were heavily contaminated.
In summer season the high temperature enhances the level of bacteria in the water as well as turbidity ( Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality)
This rise in bacteria and turbidity makes water inadequate and unhealthy for human beings and and thus responsible for spreading water-borne diseases, the letter said.
The letter highlighted nine samples of water taken from two locations in Gilgit city that were declared unfit for human consumption. The results of water quality test corresponded to the spread of typhoid.
It also said that typhoid coupled with Covid-19 altogether had worsened the situation in the virus hotspot of Gilgit city.
Shahzad, in his letter, requested the authorities to take solid necessary measures to treat the water and make it consumable for human up to level of National Standards for Drinking Water Quality in order to avoid the risk of further spread of typhoid in the aforementioned town.
From a certain environmental protection agency, an official on condition of anonymity said that 90% of population of Gilgit town consumed polluted water as there was no any sort of system to treat it in the complexes.
He noted that water filtration plants installed at various areas had become too old or perhaps outdated and their maintenance was now not possible anymore.
Moreover, the underground water lines and pipes have also become outdated, he said, adding people in the Gilgit town were helpless to drink highly polluted water.
The polluted and contaminated water causes typhoid, Hepatitis-A and other water-borne diseases and such the diseases weaken the human immune system. The issue had been brought into the notice of the authorities in order to solve the problem and supply clean and pure water which is the most basic right of every human being.