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KARACHI, Dec 6: An angry crowd protesting against water shortage in Daryabad Union Council and some parts of Lyari blocked Mauripur Road on Thursday morning.
The crowd, comprising youths, women and children, staged a sit-in on the road blocking traffic for more than five hours. This caused a traffic jam, and vehicles had to be diverted to narrow streets.
Carrying empty pitchers the protesters raised slogans against KWSB officials for their failure to ensure normal water supply to their localities.
The protesters dispersed after the Lyari Town Nazim, Abdul Khaliq Juma, and the Naib Nazim, Malik Mohammed Khan, intervened and assured them that the problem would be solved soon.
Resident accused valvemen and KWSB functionaries of supplying their water to illegal hydrants and affluent localities.
An acute shortage of water has been persisting in some parts of Lyari for the past three months. Last month similar rallies were held in the Chawkiwara Union areas. Representatives of local bodies had also participated in the protests and threatened to quit their offices if the water shortage problem was not solved.
The Naib Nazim of the Town said despite repeated assurances the government and KWSB officials had taken no practical steps to solve the problem, forcing people to take to agitation.
The affected areas include parts of Kalakot, Nawalane, Juman Shah Plot, Chawkiwara, Singoo Lane, Rangiwara, Gul Mohammed Lane, Old and New Kalri, Ahmed Shah Bukhari Road, Juma Baloch Road, Phoolpatti Lane, Ali Mohammed Mohallah and Shah Beg Lane.
OTHER AREAS: Various parts of Orangi Township have been facing an acute shortage of water for more than a past fortnight.
The hard-hit areas include Orangi’s sectors 11 (Urdu Chowk), 11 1/2, Block L, Aziz Nagar, Islam Chowk, Mustafa Colony, Millat Colony, Warisia Colony, Nishan-i-Haider Chowk and Sector 12-C (Ittefaq Colony).
Attributing the cause of the persisting water shortage to leakages in a 48-inch dia pipeline at Sabri Chowk and in a 24-inch dia pipeline near Urdu Chowk, a councillor from UC-9 (Orangi), Aftab Ahmed, said thousands of people had been experiencing an acute shortage of water for more than a fortnight, but the KWSB officials had not bothered to repair the leakages, the cause of short supply.
He said KWSB officials had announced, at a ceremony that had been held to mark the restoration of supply from the Hub dam, that Orangi and other parts of former district West would be supplied water daily, but most parts of Orangi had been getting supply for two hours after every three days with low pressure.
The leakages had further deteriorated water supply situation in various localities of the township. In such a situation residents of the affected localities had been left with no choice but to buy water from donkey-carts, at Rs80 a cart, he added.
Water shortage has also been persisting in Khokhrapar, Malir, North Karachi’s sectors 10 and 11-C-3, Old Golimar, Wilayatabad, parts of Bacha Khan Chowk area, Clifton’s Block 2 and Bahadurabad No 3.
Residents of the affected sectors of North Karachi said, on the one hand, a considerable quantity of water had been going to waste due to two leakages in a pipeline and, on the other, their localities had been deprived of water for the past five days.
They said the pipeline had developed two leakages — one in front of House No R-17 in Sector 10 in North Karachi and the other near House No R-79 in Sector 11-C-3 — causing an acute shortage of water in both the sectors.
