SUKKUR, Jan 17: Sukkur experienced another waterless day on Thursday as two transformers which were installed at the water pumping station burnt down due to a short circuit and the Wapda authorities had failed to fix them till the filing of this report.

The Wapda authorities said that it would take another day in having the transformers repaired.

Citizens protested in front of the offices of the Taluka Municipal Council and the Wapda for their gross negligence as a result of which they had to suffer.

Sukkur has been facing an acute shortage of drinking water since a week and the Taluka Municipal Council despite making efforts failed to resolve the issue.

People started fighting in the streets over water in various localities of Sukkur city both on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Taluka Nazim, Syed Kazim Ali Shah said that the water shortage would continue upto Jan 25 as the right bank of the River Indus had completely dried up.

The Taluka Council as an alternative measure decided to obtain water from the left bank of the Indus.

Due to the shortage of water, citizens are compelled to purchase water from people supplying water on donkey carts or buy it from the Fire Brigade which was selling it at Rs400 per tanker.

Since there are a limited number of water tankers, therefore they remain busy for most part of the day suppling water from one person to another and from one area to another.

The water tankers were supplying water on the recommendations of the councillors, Nazim, Naib Nazim, and influential people.

The poor people who have no connections whatsoever could be seen with a worried look on their faces to get a few buckets of water.

The Taluka Council faces another problem in supplying water through pumps as Wapda observes loadshedding for several hours almost every day.

Mr Shah suggested to Wapda authorities to stop the loadshedding for the time being so that the pumps installed by the Taluka Council could run round the clock.

The Zila Nazim, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah told this correspondent that the district government, Sukkur, had given Rs1 million to the Taluka Council to purchase more electric motors to overcome the problem.