April 1, 2002	Monday	Muharram 17, 1423

KARACHI, March 31: Acute water shortage continues to persist in several parts of the city in the current hot weather.

Residents of the affected localities complained that although they were being supplied water on their turns, the concerned officials of the KWSB had either reduced the duration of the supply or were releasing the supply with a low pressure.

Most such complaints have been received from the residents of Bahadurabad’s Block 3, Muslimabad, Catholic Colony, Adamjee Nagar, Shabbirabad, Bangalore Town, different sectors of North Karachi, Buffer Zone and parts of Old City Area, including Lyari’s deficient pockets.

Complaints of scant supply with gaps in their turns have also been received from some parts of the city and these include Clifton’s Block 2, Jamshed Colony No 3, Mehmoodabad.

The residents of Manzoor Colony regretted that although their locality had been without water for a week, the officials of the KWSB had not taken measures to restore the supply.

They demanded of the KWSB managing director to direct the authorities to restore normal supply without any further delay as they could not afford to buy private tankers sold at exorbitant rates.

Complaints of persisting water shortage have been received from different sectors of North Karachi and Buffer Zone where the KWSB had applied a 48-hour closure for affixing a valve in a 48-inch dia pipeline on Thursday last.

Residents of the affected sectors which include North Karachi’s Sector 5-C-1 (Sir Syed Town) and Buffer Zone’s Sectors 5-A-1 and 5-A-3, complained that although the closure had ended on Saturday, the water supply to their localities was not normalised till Sunday.

Meanwhile, the residents of Orangi’s Sector 11 1/2 complained that although they had recently lodged a serious protest against the persisting water shortage, when they had blocked the main Sharea Orangi, near Nishan-i-Haider Chowk, the KWSB’s officials had not yet bothered to ensure regular and adequate supply to their localities.

They said that since their localities had been facing serious water shortage for the last 20 days, they had either to drink sub-soil unhygienic water at the cost of their health or buy water cans being sold on donkey-carts at high rates.

The area councillor, Aftab Ahmed, said that although a number of localities situated in Orangi’s Sector 11 1/2 had been facing acute water shortage for the last three weeks, the officials of the KWSB were taking no interest in normalising the supply.

He also complained that the KWSB staff remained unavailable at the office, causing inconvenience to the general public.