KARACHI, Sept 24: Water supply to several parts of the city was badly affected on Tuesday owing to a power breakdown which occurred at the KWSB’s Pipri pumping station on Tuesday.

According to the KWSB sources, pumping of water from the Pipri pumping station remained suspended for more than nine hours (from 7.30 pm on Monday to 5am on Tuesday), causing a shortfall of 30 million gallons of water.

The localities which suffered on account of short supply of water from the Pipri pumping station include the Defence Housing Authority, Qayyumabad, Akhtar Colony, Manzoor Colony, Mehmoodabad, Landhi, Korangi and Malir.

Residents of Federal B’ Area’s Block 14 also complained that they had been facing serious water crisis for the last three weeks.

They said that the water supplying schedule of their locality was initially disrupted about 20 days back when the KWSB had started cleaning the pipelines of their locality on the plea that such an exercise would ensure smooth and regular supply of water to the deficient pockets of the locality.

However, so far the water supply position of the tail-end areas of Federal B’ Area’s Block 14 has not improved and the heaps of mud which are still lying on the road that was dug up for cleaning the pipeline, causing inconvenience to motorists and pedestrians.

Acute water shortage also continues to persist in different sectors of Orangi, Baldia, North Karachi and Surjani townships.

Residents of the affected sectors of the sprawling townships said that although they had been experiencing acute water shortage for the last two months, the officials concerned of the KWSB had not yet succeeded in resolving the lingering issue, despite a number of complaints lodged with them.

Complaints of persisting water shortage have also been received from the residents of Shershah, SITE, Clifton’s Block 2 and Dhoraji.

Residents of the affected localities said that in the absence of regular water supply to their localities, they had no choice but to consume sub-soil unhygienic water at the cost of their health.

They demanded of the city Nazim and the KWSB managing director to instruct the concerned officials to ensure uninterrupted supply, or else those consuming sub-soil water might fall victims of serious abdominal diseases.