May 18, 2002	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 5, 1423

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KOHAT, May 17: The Peshawar Electricity Supply Company (Pesco) has failed to address the problem of consistent breakdowns which sometime exceed the duration of eight hours daily for the last several weeks making the hot weather unbearable for its consumers.

Similarly, the acute shortage of potable water due to the apathy of the public health engineering has made the life of people miserable in various parts of the city as well as in all the surrounding villages.

The residents of College town and Paracha town on Rawalpindi road are without water where the only tubewell is out of order for the last one week.

A resident of College town, Israr told Dawn that for the last two days there has been no water in his house even to brush his teeth.

The water shortage also persists in the towns on the Hangu road and Chakarkot on the Bannu road, Garden colony, Miangan colony, Gumbat, Lachi, Tappi and Shahpur where underground water level has dropped considerably during the last two years and deep drilling was required to keep the water tanks at the optimum level.

It may be recalled that the Wapda authorities had declared 10 days ago that power will remain suspended in three zones of the city for six hours daily on alternate days due to maintenance work on the heavy line till May 14.

But Water and Water and Development Authority (Wapda) had failed to complete maintenance work and was also violating the schedule announced for power suspension.

In the rural areas the Wapda was resorting to unannounced load shedding  of 12-20 hours duration making the hot weather unbearable for the womenfolk and children.

The women had been forced to fetch water from the drying springs travelling long distances in the scorching heat.

The fluctuation in the supply of electricity is another big problem which caused damage to electronic home appliances in Ustarzai town at large scale last week.