Summary “Pollutants have permeated both air and water; how can one remain alive?” lamented CJP
LAHORE (Dunya News) – As Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar on Thursday resumed hearing the suo moto case on supply of unsafe drinking water here in Supreme Court Lahore registry, WASA MD, Food Authority DG and chief secretary briefed the two-member bench on city’s water supply management.
Managing Director of Water and Sanitation Agency told the court that 576 tube wells were supplying underground water across Lahore. Director General Food Authority, on the other hand, provided details about companies offering mineral water products. Across Punjab, he said, 1148 mineral water companies were operating, of which 145 had been sealed after failing to meet standards set by the Food Authority. Only 66 companies were found to have been distributing up-to-the-mark drinking water in bottles, revealed the DG.
As per Food Authority stats, 350 companies are supplying bottled drinking water in Lahore city alone.
Chief Justice chided the Food Authority DG for incentivising the water plant owners at the cost of consumers, who face ever greater risk of being caught up with Hepatitis – whose treatment is too costly to afford for the common man – due to consumption of contaminated water. CJP then directed the DG to collect 100 water samples from across city and dispatch them to the laboratory.
Chief Justice Saqib Nisar also took a jibe at chief secretary. “To dispose of hospitals’ waste, you could have trimmed a bogie off orange line train so as to cover the cost of a waste management plant”, he remarked.
CJP also shed light on the importance of good governance. “We ought to bring change to the prevailing conditions to uplift nation’s living standards. Punjab government would do well to revisit its priorities”, he added.
Court then adjourned the hearing till Saturday.
