KARACHI, Nov 1: Various parts of the city will remain dry from Saturday midnight to Monday noon in the wake of a 36-hour closure being applied by the KWSB to facilitate the leakage-repairing work of the 54-inch dia Pipri Main.
The vital places and localities to go without water during the closure period, starting from Saturday midnight (Nov 3), include Jinnah Terminal, all kachchi abadis situated in the periphery of the Terminal, Landhi Town, Landhi industrial area, Bin Qasim, National Highway, its adjoining union councils, Malir, Saudabad, Quaidabad, Muzaffarabad, Khuldabad, Majeed Colony and the adjacent areas.
Terming ill-timed the decision of applying the closure at a time when a number of localities of the city are already under the impact of Wednesday’s short supply of water, some KWSB officials wondered why the officials of the Board’s Water Trunk Mains Department were undertaking the repair of the Pipri Mains’ leakage in haste, although they could delay such works till the normalisation of the city’s water supply situation.
They said that the closure would add to the miseries of people in many localities for another couple of days. Besides, they said, the Civil Aviation Authority would require fleets of water tankers to meet the water needs of the offices situated at Jinnah Terminal, passengers and those who would be visiting the Quaid-i-Azam International Airport during the long closure period.
Although the water supply position in several localities of the city including Landhi, Korangi, Malir, Saudabad, Quaidabad, Khuldabad and its adjoining localities was expected to be normalised by Friday, these localities will again go dry from Saturday in the wake of 36 hours closure being enforced
by the KWSB from Saturday noon.
“In fact, the 36-hour closure will further aggravate the city’s water supply situation as the supply position in several localities of the metropolis which were hit hard on Wednesday and Thursday due to the short supply of water has yet to be normalised,” they said.
The decision of suspending water supply to various localities of the city for such a long duration, the sources said, has been taken at a time when most parts of the city were already experiencing acute water shortage owing to a shortfall of 100 million gallons of water that had resulted in the wake of Wednesday’s power failure at the kWSB’s five major pumping stations.
Supply of water to the city from the KWSB’s major pumping stations situated at Dhabeji, Pipri, North-East Karachi and Hub Dam had remained suspended for different durations on Wednesday due to non-availability of electricity; as a result the city had suffered a shortfall of about 100 mgd.
The localities which either went without water or got scant supply on Wednesday and Thursday as a result of Wednesday’s shortfall of 100 mgd included Baldia, Orangi, Banaras, Paharganj,, Orangi, North Karachi, Surjani Town, some blocks of North Nazimabad and Federal B’ Area, Nazimabad, Paposhnagar, Landhi, Korangi, Liaquatabad, Old City Area and Shah Faisal Colony.
