‘Twin cities water contaminated’

ISLAMABAD: Fearing a cholera outbreak caused by contaminated water, the National Institute of Health (NIH) has tested 21 water samples and found that bacterial contamination is causing acute water diarrhoea.

“The quality of water varies from place to place. We have advised authorities to make special arrangements to supply clean drinking water to the public,” senior doctors at NIH told Daily Times on Tuesday. NIH experts say they have asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Water and Sanitation Authority (WASA) in Rawalpindi to check for leaks in underground water pipelines to determine what is causing the water’s bacterial contamination.

The old underground water-supply infrastructure in Rawalpindi and Islamabad have countless leak points which allow the water contamination. The doctors said that the Epidemic Investigation Cell has been monitoring the outbreak and compiling the data that it receives from public sector hospitals. According to compiled statistics, 682 cases were treated in the outpatient departments of major hospitals in the twin cities and 238 patients were hospitalised with acute water diarrhoea. staff report

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