MIRPUR [AJK]: Mirpur Deputy Commissioner Chaudhry Amjad Iqbal Wednesday said that several measures have been taken to prevent jaundice in Mirpur city with efforts of the district administration, health department and public health engineering department.
“In the wake of continual further improvement in this direction, all the hotels, shops and food vendors have been given a week to clean their water tanks immediately and install filters”, the DC said while addressing an emergency meeting of the departments concerned in the wake of the steps to combat the disease in the city and the rest of the district.
It was decided in the meeting that the Department of Public Health Engineering will gradually clean all the supply tanks in the city. Citizens should clean the water tanks of their houses and use filtered water because of the spread of jaundice. The supply of water from the main water tank to different sectors will be suspended for two days from May 5 due to cleaning, therefore, the citizens should store water beforehand.
In the meeting, DHO Dr. Fida Hussain Raja, Assistant Commissioner Sardar Abdul Qadir Khan, Chief Officer Maghees Riaz, XEN Public Health Engineering Raja Inamullah Khan, DMS Dr. Iram Batul, Information Officer Muhammad Javed Malik, Municipal Magistrate Sheikh Zahid Majeed, SDO Raja Hafeez Ur Rahman, Assistant Director Livestock Dr. Khalid Qayyum Butt, SDO Public Health Engineering Syed Hyder Ali, Engineer Yasir Ahmed of PHE, Qamar Atta of Muslim Hands participated.
The meeting was informed about the progress of lab testing of water supply tanks, the accuracy of water pipes and valve leakage at different places by XEN of Public Health Engineering Raja Inamullah Khan last month. All main tanks of the city have been initially cleaned with chlorine, while from May 05 every other main tank is being practically cleaned, for which every tank will be cleaned in two days. The water supply will be suspended for two days in the city. Tests of water samples are being conducted one after another.
He said the tests of jaundice patients have revealed that the cases of hepatitis A and E are high, which is the main reason for using polluted water. The administration, in collaboration with the public health department, municipality, and public health engineering, will take water samples and test them for the supply of drinking water throughout the city.
The water of various hotels and shops selling food and drinks have been checked across the city. Public Health Engineering will also clean all the tanks and cover the tanks, in this regard, the report of the water tests will also be provided to the district administration, he concluded.