HYDERABAD, May 18: There is a marked increase in cases of gastroenteritis here, especially in Latifabad, due to consumption of highly contaminated water, according to information collected by this correspondent on Tuesday.

Reports of gastroenteritis cases were also received from parts of Jamshoro, Kotri and others area but exact number of patients could not be known. The doctors have warned that if the situation did not improve, the consumers of the poisonous water might begin suffering from the water-borne hepatitis-A and typhoid.

Cases of gastroenteritis always increased in the city in April and May but a sharp increase had been witnessed in the cases over the last three days, Dr Wajid Ali of paediatrics ward of Civil Hospital Hyderabad said.

He said that parents complained that their children had been normal but they started suffering from vomiting and stomach problem after drinking brackish water. Among the children admitted to the paediatrics ward, around 45 per cent were suffering from water-borne diseases, he said.

Dr Akbar Lakhani of the Bhitai Hospital said that 410 patients of diarrhoea and vomiting, 94 of them children, had come to the hospital between May 1 and 18. Dr Maqbool of a charitable hospital confirmed that the number of patients of gastroenteritis had increased over the last three to four days.

Other doctors said that consumption of contaminated water always resulted in cases of hepatitis-A and typhoid and their symptoms were bound to appear in two to four weeks.

People said that the extent of the contamination in the water could be gauged from the fact that filters installed in their houses were not properly working. Some of them now prefer to fetch water from far off places where under-ground sweet water wells were available, they said.

According to the CHH's record, percentage of gastroenteritis patients was 46 to 46.88 from May 15 to 16 whereas earlier the ratio was close to 25 percent. The age group of children affected by the water is between two and under two years.

The people of the city, especially of Latifabad taluka, usually complained that they were being supplied contaminated water. However, the situation had taken a serious turn in the last three days when reports suggested that polluted water, released from the Manchhar Lake in the Indus through Aral Wah, had reached Kotri barrage, from where water is supplied to Hyderabad, Karachi, Thatta, and other parts of lower Sindh.

There has always been complaints by union council Nazims of Latifabad of supply of highly polluted water to unit no 4, 5, 10, 11 and 12 as Wasa was supplying water to the areas from the spot where sewage of Qasimabad was released.

It has been noted that the demand of purified water being supplied from private filter plants has remarkably increased in the city. A filter plant owner, M. A, Raja Qazi, said that his sale had recently increased by 150 canisters of 12 litres per day. Each canister costs a consumer Rs15 with Rs40 deposits for the canister's price.

He said that his plant could control contamination of water up to 2,800 to 2,850 cc but presently the water contained 3,000 cc contamination therefore its bad smell could not be removed.

The suppliers are finding it difficult to meet the demand from general stores where there is rush of customers for filtered water. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency officials have collected water samples from Sehrish Nagar, Paretabad and Latifabad-4.

Administrative in charge of the EPA Masood Ahmed Siddiqui said that he believed that what was available in River Indus could not be called water due to high level of contamination it contained.

Mr Siddiqui had written a letter to the managing director of the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority, requesting him to ask the research and development cell to address the issue of quality of the water.

The EPA has also planned to conduct a site survey of the Manchhar Lake or any other site proposed by the cell to collect water samples for analysis.