River Indus water pollution: NSUCS stops water supply to Sukkur

In a move to protect the health of thousands of citizens of Sukkur, the third largest city of Sindh, the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation (NSUSC) has stopped water supply to the city due to the pollution of Indus River waters, Business Recorder learnt on Tuesday.
The NSUSC, a public municipal corporation governed by the Sindh government, said it has stopped water supply to 60 percent population of Sukkur due to shortage of water in Indus River and pollution of the water. Sukkur is third largest city of Sindh with a total population of around 0.8 million people. NSUSC is providing drinking water, solid waste management and drainage services in six intermediate cities of Sindh including Sukkur.
Indus River is the only source of water supply to Sukkur city and water regulation is the responsibility of Sindh Irrigation Department. When contacted, NSUSC's spokesperson and Manager Waste Water Services Munim Domki confirmed discontinuation of water supply to the city. "We are a socially responsible organisation and cannot provide polluted water to the citizens," he said.
To a question, he said that the reason behind pollution of Indus water was decrease in fresh water level at intake points of the water supply. He said irrigation authorities regulate Sukkur Barrage and it's beyond the mandate of the NSUSC to control water flow of the Indus.
"The water supply to the city will only be restored after supply of fresh water was ensured by the irrigation authorities," he said. "The situation was officially communicated to irrigation department last month with a demand to provide 100 cusecs of fresh water on daily basis," he added.
On the other side, XEN Irrigation department, Aftab Khoso was of the view that water flow in River Indus in the month of October touched a record low of last 50 years. "Apart from that the floods of 2010 have changed the river's course," he said. He said that the irrigation department and NSUSC officials were holding daily meetings to find out solution of the problem on sustainable basis.
They said that the incomplete multi-billion rupees Sukkur Mega Drainage Project being executed by Public Health Engineering Department of government of Sindh could solve the problem. This scheme was started in 2007 and had to be completed in 2010 as per the stipulated timeframe, which would have helped drained sewerage water into downstream Sukkur barrage and protected the intake for water supply at upstream Lansdowne bridge, the sources said.