KARACHI - Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the concerned departments to take drastic measures to provide clean water to the people of the province.

He issued this directive while presiding over a meeting on provision of clean water to the people of the province. The meeting was attended by provincial ministers Manzoor Wassan (industries) and Jam Khan Shoro (local government), Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Naveed Kamran Baloch, Irrigation Secretary Jamal Shah, Local Government Secretary Ramzan Awan, Public Health Engineering Secretary Tameez Khero, managing directors of water boards and others.

The chief minister said the Supreme Court (SC) had given clear guidelines about provision of clean water to the people of Sindh. “As a matter of fact, it is our basic responsibility to do the job honestly,” he said.

He directed the irrigation secretary and the environment department not to allow release of industrial water into the River Indus, canals or the sea. “It must be treated before it is released into the river, canals or the sea,” he said. He directed the officials to make a comprehensive plan for this purpose and take all stakeholders into confidence. This must be done on a priority basis, he said.

Syed Murad Ali Shah directed the WASA and KWSB managing directors to make the water distribution system safe and efficient and develop a regular inspection system to ensure proper implementation of standard operating procedures like mixing chlorine into water as per requirement, cleaning storage ponds and maintaining sewerage system so that sewage does not mixes into clean water.

The chief minister also directed the health department to install some more incinerators and repair the broken ones so that hospital waste can be disposed of in line with international standards. He also told the officials that he would visit the water distribution system and see treatment of municipal, industrial and hospital waste.