HYDERABAD: Sindh Chief Secretary Syed Asif Hyder Shah has conceded before the Sindh High Court that the timelines for the implementation of Supreme Court-appointed water commission could not be met. He also conceded that were still 769 points from where different departments had been releasing waste into freshwater bodies.

The one-man commission headed by retired Justice Amir Hani Muslim had inspected most freshwater bodies and sewerage installations in Sindh in 2018 before recommending a series of measures to ensure provision of clean drinking water to citizens and improving sanitation across the province. The Sindh High Court has already held many proceedings since the Supreme Court directed it to see that the commission’s recommendation were implemented.

The latest proceedings were held in continuation of the hearing of a petition filed by Aftab Ahmed, Noor Ahmed and Ali Akbar, residents of Johi, through Advocate Gulzar Almani in 2021. CS Asif Shah, along with Sindh Advocate General Mohammad Hassan Akbar personally appeared before the bench comprising Justice Shamsuddin Abbasi and Justice Amjad Ali Sahito.

While admitting that most recommendations of the water commission could not be implemented for various reasons, the chief secretary argued that they were “suggestive” and “guiding principles” in nature.

He informed the bench that 31 proposals were short-term and the others medium- and long-term ones. Seventeen of them have been or are being implemented,” he added.

The judges heard him patiently, and observed that they trusted him for his track record, otherwise they were fed-up hearing departmental heads. “If we refer their [officers’] cases to anticorruption [establishment], it will give them clean chit while NAB won’t do anything either,” Justice Sahito remarked.

CS Asif admitted: “Indeed, substantive compliance is not seen on some proposals and timeline was missed for resource constraints, etc.”

Giving a break-up of the works carried out under the commission’s directives, he said that out of 493 public health engineering (PHE) schemes, 273 were rehabilitated and 220 were pending rehab but the department had promised to complete them by June 2025. He said 46 schemes would be taken-up in Phase-III if found technically feasible.

He said PHE had been instructed to include ‘oxidation pond’ component in schemes from now onwards. In 77 works, oxidation ponds were built and land acquisition is pending in remaining ones. He added that 837 water supply schemes pertained to hypochlorinator and alum chambers processes in water supply works. He admitted that progress was not made on 600 schemes as yet.

Reading from his report, he stated that following the commission’s report, a survey was conducted and it was found that actually 769 points, and not 180, existed where untreated sewage was disposed of into irrigation channels.

“[A total of] 428 such points are plugged and work on 341 points is underway as land acquisition [issue] is involved again,” he said, and added that the 769 points belonging to different departments were releasing waste into freshwater.

Incinerators at health facilities

Regarding the commission’s recommendations for health sector, the chief secretary said that the incinerators at these facilities were not working due to the design issue and absence of gas supply.

“In 70pc cases, gas supply is not there. The health secretary has sought one month’s time to make them functional at 35-40 hospitals,” he said, adding that the department was trying to provide incinerators to major hospitals to implement a strategy. He said provision of 16 incinerators to district headquarters hospitals and 50 to taluka headquarters hospitals was envisaged under the annual development programme (ADP).

Referring to the commission’s observation that around 4,000 schools needed safe water supply, the CS revealed that actually they were around 5,000 in number. He said the project would take two years to resolve the issue.

Manchhar Lake water

About Manchhar Lake water issue, the chief secretary noted that the commission had called for feeding the lake through two irrigation escape channels — Maado and Rawat — and said this project was under way.

At this juncture, Justice Sahito asked him to explain what action was taken against the chief engineer of the Right Bank of Sukkur Barrage for not emptying the lake in 2022, when floodwaters from Balochistan came and resultantly Khairpur Nathan Shah, Mahar and Johi were inundated.

The CS invited the irrigation secretary, Zarif Khero, to assist court. Khero tried to explain that release of Manchhar’s flows always depended on flows in Indus. He said Manchhar was indeed emptied but in a controlled manner considering Indus flows.

Justice Sahito said Rs300m were collected during the floods but its utilisation eluded people. Khero succinctly said that works were indeed carried out and even lake’s bunds were breached to offload it, and added that soil salinity also added to the contamination of the lake’s water.

“Manchhar Lake was not washed despite available flows rather it was an ‘eyewash’ for Sindh,” Justice Sahito said as Justice Abbasi came up with observation that “there is massive corruption in irrigation department”. Justice Abbasi said “if matter of corruption is referred to NAB it would not deliver”.

Petitioners’ counsel Gulzar Almani termed the chief secretary’s report “totally baseless”, and urged court to get the works inspected through sessions and civil court judges. “Everything will become crystal clear,” he told the bench.

The court took the chief secretary’s report on record before adjourning the matter to a date to be fixed after three months.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2024