Suction pump- a killer virus
In the year 1974 my colleague invited me to his home to show performance of his new pump, which was going to suck all water from pipeline. They built an exceptionally large underground tank for the storage of this water. When they started pumping, it was exceptionally good to receiving water but suddenly we found some algae’s and leave arriving with water. I went outside and look in the vicinity and there was a school in the back side, which was closed for summer holidays and having an open pond of water with lots of tadpoles, algae, and leaves. I reported this to my colleague, and they stopped pumping and later decided to dismantle all arrangements. It was the beginning of suction pump in the city but by end eighties this becomes a feature as symbol of pride. Normally kept hidden in the kitchen cabinet and started only in late hours but later it was linked to the call by linemen who was getting fixed amount per month for his calls. When in late eighties a British consultant arrived in Karachi to install water meters, they called all potential vendors to submit free samples of water meters. I visited their office and inquire how come you are going to measure water when lines are full of air? They claimed that their study is based on a survey of about 250 houses in different localities. Based on my question about suction pump they confirmed that they did not see any suction pump in their survey. It was really happened that when first meter installed on commercial user line shows about thousands of gallons without passing any water. Next week they call to provide the air eliminators, which may remove air from pipeline. I told them there is no product available in the industry to remove big quantity of air. This project was failed completely. KWSB is billing only on pro-rata basis.
There were RCC pipelines were used to carry water and dedicated pipe factory was located on the stadium road for manufacturing these pipes, but all these pipelines were ruptured due to suction pump. This can be understood by an example. The automobile engine cooling system is based on radiator, coolant, and fan. The car radiators are connected with the engine with two hoses. These hoses have distinct design. The delivery hose is soft and flexible and suction hose is hard and rigid. The same design feature is considered in water transmission. The delivery pipes are generally designed for maximum pressure of 100 PSI, but this pipe cannot with stand vacuum of few millimeters. When everyone is started using suction pump, which is connected to the branch line and the branch line is finally connected with main line. When thousands of suction pumps started functioning, they start sucking the water from pipelines ultimately the system came under vacuum condition. This is where all things started in catastrophic mode. The pipelines are like delivery hose and under vacuum of mere few millimeters the pipeline collapsed. When the pipeline ruptured the water from main continued to pump from Jhampir pumping station and discharging water in the storage tank in the back side of Civic Centre. After overflowing this water start coming on university road and start flowing up to Shaheed e Millat Road. It was a regular feature observed on the University Road by the commuters of the area.
There were two open pits leftover by the contractors, which were remained open for many months on the intersections of Share Faisal and Dr. Daoud Pota Road, in front of Rimpa Tower, and the other one on the Khayabane Jami and Khayabane Iqbal, in front of Uzma Arcade. I was standing near these pits in the morning time around 7:30 to 8:00 AM, there was significant change in brackish water level was visible and leaving no water by 8:30 am. All passersby were using these pits as community toilet. I observed this phenomenon many times. This water enters the domestic water pipelines through leaking joints. An oil tanker was overturned at submarine chowrangi, causing news item that oil is coming in the tap water in the houses of Block 9 of Clifton whereas it was all result of using suction pumps. There were 60 employees of Habib Bank Branch on MA Jinnah Road, 120 residents in Buffer Zone, and about 250 residents of an apartment complex were seriously ill due to Jaundice, it was due to suction pump and sewage water was contaminating the potable water.
Now this suction pump is utilized by everyone in Pakistan from Gwadar to Gilgit. This is causing wide spreading of waterborne diseases. These diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms that most commonly are transmitted in contaminated fresh water by using suction pumps. Infection commonly results during bathing, washing, drinking, in the preparation of food, or the consumption of food thus infected. Various forms of waterborne diarrheal disease probably are the most prominent examples and affect mainly children in all parts of Pakistan.
These diseases can have a significant impact on the economy, locally as well as internationally. People who are infected by a waterborne disease are usually confronted with related costs and seldom with a huge financial burden. The financial losses are mostly caused by e.g. costs for medical treatment and medication, costs for transport, special food, and by the loss of manpower. Many families must even sell their land to pay for treatment in a proper hospital. On average, a family spends about 10% of the monthly household’s income per person infected.
The water supply is purely an engineering task but we leftover this task in the hand of Linemen. The proper engineering of water supply system may safely lot of money in term of medical expenses born by diseased persons and may save lives of many children losing life within 5 years of age by waterborne diseases.
In the year 1974 my colleague invited me to his home to show performance of his new pump, which was going to suck all water from pipeline. They built an exceptionally large underground tank for the storage of this water. When they started pumping, it was exceptionally good to receiving water but suddenly we found some algae’s and leave arriving with water. I went outside and look in the vicinity and there was a school in the back side, which was closed for summer holidays and having an open pond of water with lots of tadpoles, algae, and leaves. I reported this to my colleague, and they stopped pumping and later decided to dismantle all arrangements. It was the beginning of suction pump in the city but by end eighties this becomes a feature as symbol of pride. Normally kept hidden in the kitchen cabinet and started only in late hours but later it was linked to the call by linemen who was getting fixed amount per month for his calls. When in late eighties a British consultant arrived in Karachi to install water meters, they called all potential vendors to submit free samples of water meters. I visited their office and inquire how come you are going to measure water when lines are full of air? They claimed that their study is based on a survey of about 250 houses in different localities. Based on my question about suction pump they confirmed that they did not see any suction pump in their survey. It was really happened that when first meter installed on commercial user line shows about thousands of gallons without passing any water. Next week they call to provide the air eliminators, which may remove air from pipeline. I told them there is no product available in the industry to remove big quantity of air. This project was failed completely. KWSB is billing only on pro-rata basis.
There were RCC pipelines were used to carry water and dedicated pipe factory was located on the stadium road for manufacturing these pipes, but all these pipelines were ruptured due to suction pump. This can be understood by an example. The automobile engine cooling system is based on radiator, coolant, and fan. The car radiators are connected with the engine with two hoses. These hoses have distinct design. The delivery hose is soft and flexible and suction hose is hard and rigid. The same design feature is considered in water transmission. The delivery pipes are generally designed for maximum pressure of 100 PSI, but this pipe cannot with stand vacuum of few millimeters. When everyone is started using suction pump, which is connected to the branch line and the branch line is finally connected with main line. When thousands of suction pumps started functioning, they start sucking the water from pipelines ultimately the system came under vacuum condition. This is where all things started in catastrophic mode. The pipelines are like delivery hose and under vacuum of mere few millimeters the pipeline collapsed. When the pipeline ruptured the water from main continued to pump from Jhampir pumping station and discharging water in the storage tank in the back side of Civic Centre. After overflowing this water start coming on university road and start flowing up to Shaheed e Millat Road. It was a regular feature observed on the University Road by the commuters of the area.
There were two open pits leftover by the contractors, which were remained open for many months on the intersections of Share Faisal and Dr. Daoud Pota Road, in front of Rimpa Tower, and the other one on the Khayabane Jami and Khayabane Iqbal, in front of Uzma Arcade. I was standing near these pits in the morning time around 7:30 to 8:00 AM, there was significant change in brackish water level was visible and leaving no water by 8:30 am. All passersby were using these pits as community toilet. I observed this phenomenon many times. This water enters the domestic water pipelines through leaking joints. An oil tanker was overturned at submarine chowrangi, causing news item that oil is coming in the tap water in the houses of Block 9 of Clifton whereas it was all result of using suction pumps. There were 60 employees of Habib Bank Branch on MA Jinnah Road, 120 residents in Buffer Zone, and about 250 residents of an apartment complex were seriously ill due to Jaundice, it was due to suction pump and sewage water was contaminating the potable water.
Now this suction pump is utilized by everyone in Pakistan from Gwadar to Gilgit. This is causing wide spreading of waterborne diseases. These diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms that most commonly are transmitted in contaminated fresh water by using suction pumps. Infection commonly results during bathing, washing, drinking, in the preparation of food, or the consumption of food thus infected. Various forms of waterborne diarrheal disease probably are the most prominent examples and affect mainly children in all parts of Pakistan.
These diseases can have a significant impact on the economy, locally as well as internationally. People who are infected by a waterborne disease are usually confronted with related costs and seldom with a huge financial burden. The financial losses are mostly caused by e.g. costs for medical treatment and medication, costs for transport, special food, and by the loss of manpower. Many families must even sell their land to pay for treatment in a proper hospital. On average, a family spends about 10% of the monthly household’s income per person infected.
The water supply is purely an engineering task but we leftover this task in the hand of Linemen. The proper engineering of water supply system may safely lot of money in term of medical expenses born by diseased persons and may save lives of many children losing life within 5 years of age by waterborne diseases.
