KARACHI: Water for Orangi, Site on urgent basis ordered
KARACHI, Nov 13: The Nazim of Karachi, Naimatullah Khan, on Wednesday directed the Water and Sewerage Wing to arrange immediate supply of water to Orangi and SITE areas and ensure that the decisions and measures taken in this regard were implemented.
He was presiding over a high level meeting convened on the request of the concerned elected representatives to sort out the problems, mainly related to water supply, faced by the people of these areas.
Those who attended the meeting included the MNA-elect, Muhammad Laiq Khan Abd, the MPA-elect, Hamidullah Khan, Nazims of different union councils, the EDO Water and Sewerage Wing, Brig Javed Ashraf and officials of the City government.
Mr Naimatullah Khan asked the Water and Sewerage Wing for tanker service on interim basis so as to provide water to the two badly affected areas till the problem could be resolved permanently. He mentioned the worst hit localities of Banaras Colony, Pathan Colony, Malakand Area, Union Councils No. 3 to 7 and some other localities which, he said, needed an immediate attention.
Earlier, the elected representatives informed the City Nazim that water supply to the hilly areas of Orangi Town had remained suspended for the several days whereas the pumping machines at Banars and Rehman Baba stations were lying out of order.
Brig Ashraf told the meeting that special attention was being paid to the localities dominated by the low income class and an additional quantity of water was being provided besides an increased tanker service in these localities. He held out the assurance that the out of order pumping stations would made functional in a few days.
Meanwhile, Mr Naimatullah Khan, acting upon a request from a delegation, headed by the MPA-elect, Nasrullah Sejji, has summoned a joint meeting of the Kachchi Abadi Authority, Water Board and City government Officials to solve the problems of water supply and sewerage in Umer Colony.
The delegation told the City Nazim that Umer Colony had been granted ownership rights and as such the residents had paid development charges. However, it regretted, the Kachchi Abadi Authority had not yet transferred the funds to the Water and Sewerage Board so as to pave the way for the start of uplift work in the Colony. The delegation informed the Nazim that the Board had refused to undertake any uplift work unless the funds were transferred to it for the purpose.
Mr Naimatullah Khan observed that such problems of Kachchi Abadis emerged because the Kachchi Abadi Authority had not been merged with the City government. He hoped that the issue would be resolved in the joint meeting to be held within a week.—PPI
