KARACHI:The underground water reservoirs and overhead tanks of government-run hospitals are not being cleaned on regular basis and visiting and admitted patients are compelled to drink contaminated water, it learned on Thursday.
An official of Sindh’s largest tertiary care hospital, Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), told PPI that the underground water reservoirs of this health facility was not being maintained or cleaned on regular basis. The visiting and admitted patients are compelled to drink unsafe water.
He said more than 6,000 patients from Karachi, interior Sindh and Balochistan province visit different OPDs of hospital every day. The visiting patients and their attendants drink polluted water of underground water reservoir. Some patients and their attendants buy costly botted water to avoid water-borne diseases.
The contaminated water is also supplied to various departments of hospital and staff colony. The official said consumption of contaminated water can develop water-borne diseases among patients and their attendants.
It was learnt that the overhead tanks and underground reservoirs Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Jinnah Hospital Karachi and many other government hospitals are also not being cleaned from past several months due to slackness of bureaucracy.
Additional Medical Superintendent, Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi, Dr Ismail Memon, while talking to PPI, said chlorination of water is the responsibility of Infectious Diseases Department and they are regularly cleaning the water tanks.