KARACHI: People suffer as city faces 25mgd water shortfall
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, March 28: Dwindling supply from the Hub Dam — an average of 25mgd — has aggravated the water supply position in Orangi, Baldia and Surjani in the current hot weather, forcing thousands of people to consume sub-soil unhygienic water.
Various other localities of former district central which went without water on Thursday and will remain dry till Saturday in the wake of a 48-hour closure applied by the KWSB from Wednesday midnight included Buffer Zone’s sectors 15-A-1, 15-A-2, 15-A-3, 15-A-4, 15-A-5, 15-B; North Karachi’s Sir Syed Town and its adjacent localities, KDA Scheme-33, North Karachi, New Karachi, New Rasheedabad, Mianwali Colony, Shadman Town, Ayub Goth, Pirabad, Qasba and their adjoining localities.
Complaints of acute water shortage have also been received from Bahadur Yar Jung Society, Bahadurabad Block 3, PECHS Block 6 (Greenbelt Area), KDA Scheme-I, Mehmoodabad, Manzoor Colony, Bhittai Colony, Clifton’s Block 2, Old Golimar, Shah Faisal Colony, Model Colony and parts of Old City area, including Lyari’s Rexer Lane.
About the Hub dam source, the KWSB officials admitted that although the city was supposed to get 35 mgd from Hub, the KWSB’s pumping station was hardly being supplied between 28 and 25 mgd for the past one month and such the KWSB was not being able to meet the requirement of the sprawling townships hooked to the Hub source.
Apprehending that water supply from the Hub source might further decrease in the forthcoming hot season, the KWSB sources opined that water supply position in the localities hooked to the Hub source was not likely to improve until the city is supplied an agreed quantity of water i.e. 135 mgd from the Hub reservoir.
Referring to the recent demonstrations against non-supply of water in Orangi’s Sector 11 1/2, the sources said one cannot rule out the possibility of similar protests in the forthcoming days.
Demonstrators from sector 11-1/2 had blocked the main Sharea Orangi on Tuesday to voice their anger over non-supply of water to their localities during their three turns of receiving water.
CLOSURE: About the localities which will go dry for 48 hours in the wake of a closure applied by the KWSB for installing a valve in the 48-inch dia pipeline at North Karachi’s Sector 5 roundabout, the residents said they will be without water for another 48 hours at a time when their localities had already been experiencing an acute water shortage for the past one week.
The localities where a 48-hour closure had been applied include North Karachi’s Sector 11-C-1 (Sir Syed Town) and Sector 5-C and Buffer Zone’s sectors 15-A-1, 15-A-2 and 15-A-5, and these areas had already been facing an acute water shortage for the past five or six days.
Terming the decision of undertaking valve installation work ‘uncalled for’ , insiders in the KWSB said such a work could have been delayed till the normalization of supply from different sources of water.
“It is beyond one’s comprehension why such works are usually carried out at a time when there is already a short supply of water from its different sources sometimes because of power failures at the KWSB pumping stations and sometimes due to its own faulty distribution system,” a KWSB engineer said.
The decision of suspending the supply for 48 hours to a vast area of former district central had been taken at a time when these areas had not come out of the brunt of the faults at the Dhabeji and NEK pumping stations.
Complaints of water shortage continue to pouring in newspaper offices from other parts of the city and these include Old City Area, Mehmoodabad, PECHS Block 6 (Green-belt) Area, Bahadurabad Block 3, BYJ Society, KDA Scheme-1, Manzoor Colony, Bhitai Colony, Model Colony, Old Golimar and Lyari’s deficient pockets, including its Rexer Lane.
Taking undue advantage of the persisting water shortage, private tankers continue to do a roaring business, charging exorbitant rates from the residents of water-starved localities.
Residents of the affected localities said private tankers were charging between Rs 450 and 500 per tanker.
