KARACHI, Aug 1: After the first monsoon in the city, waterborne diseases, particularly diarrhoea, have emerged in Gadap Town affecting as many as 300 people and resulting in the death of a child.

Most of the people including men, women and children belong to those parts of the town where piped water is not available and the area residents depend heavily on tube wells, pools and ponds for their daily water needs.

Gadap Town Nazim Ghulam Murtaza Baloch told Dawn on Friday night that at least one death of a two-year child, Rahul, son of Rano, who could not be rushed to the relief camp set up by the city government, took place on Friday morning due to diarrhoea, while two other patients earlier admitted to the basic healthcare unit were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital late on Friday night due to their deteriorating condition.

Health officials believed that the affected people, who lived about 40km away from the city centre on the left side of Super Highway in UC-3 of Gadap Town, had consumed contaminated water. Six patients have been retained at a basic health unit for comprehensive treatment in view of their complex health conditions.

As per a CDGK handout, on the directives of City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal, timely measures have been taken to control the spread of diarrhoea in Gadap Town. A medical relief camp established by the city government in Hussain Goth of Gadap on Thursday comprised five doctors and paramedical staff and would continue giving treatment till the last diarrhoea patient recovered from the illness, the handout added.

Gadap Town, an old population scattered in villages and small settlements along farmlands, has no proper system of potable water supply. The affected population uses pond water and tube well water reserved in small open tanks, with no system of filtration or any other treatment before consumption.

An area resident said that the rain added to the health-threatening environmental conditions of Gadap and found its way to the ponds and open tanks. He said that the rain brought along a good quantity of polluted contents and filth, but no body cared for any hygienic treatment of the already susceptible reservoirs and kept using the water as usual.

At least 15 out of the 50 people, including women and children, of Haji Hussain Baloch Goth, who had complained of diarrhoeal episodes after consuming water reportedly from a seldom-used well in Gadap Town were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in May last year.The federal government at that time had promised to install a water filtration plant on a priority basis under its “Clean Drinking Water for All” programme, which was yet to be realised, said a health personnel living in the area.

The EDO health, Dr A.D. Sajnani, said that there was no report about any casualty due to the diarrhoea epidemic. “Water samples have also been collected for a laboratory test, while the affected goth-residents have also been provided with chlorine tablets”.

He said that in order to provide instant medical help to people in the rural areas, the city government had already supplied the required medicines to the medical relief camp, while ambulances had also been stationed there so as to transport patients in critical conditions to some major hospital.

Giving a breakdown of diarrhoea-affected people, he said that 140-150 people had been treated for the disease at the medical camp, while around 100 people had reported to the makeshift facility with other water-related diseases or environmental problems.

The nazim of Gadap Town said that the situation was well under control as about 300 patients, including 170 women and children, had been attended to by heath officials, while another five or so had been retained for observation and treatment at the medical relief camp.

The affected people belonged to Allah Bukhsh Goth, Ghulam Mustafa Goth, Aslam Jokhio Goth, Ramzan Khaskehli Goth and Rahugoho Ram Goth.

He said that a fifty-year-old man and a five-year-old child had been shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, while the people of the affected areas had been provided with chlorine tablets to improve the quality of the water they consumed.

Talking to Dawn over the phone from his residence in Malir Cantt, he said that he came to know about the outbreak of waterborne diseases only on Thursday.