KARACHI, Jan 2: An acute water shortage continued to persist in various parts of the city for the third consecutive day on Thursday.

The hard-hit areas were Haji Camp, Lines Area, Kachchi, Memon Cooperative Housing Society, PECHS’s green-belt area, Adamjee Nagar, Mehmoodabad No 6, North Karachi’s sectors 5-C-2, 5-C-3, 7-D-2, 7-D-3, 11-C-1 (Sir Syed Town), Buffer Zone’s Sector 16-A and parts of New Karachi and Clifton’s Block 2.

The people of these areas were compelled to buy water at exorbitant rates from the private tankers which charged between Rs400 and Rs500 per tanker.

Complaints of water shortage have also been received from various parts of the defunct West district which includes sprawling townships of Orangi, Baldia, Shershah, and the SITE area.

Residents of the affected localities regretted that although they had been experiencing acute water shortage since October last, the city government’s water and sanitation department had failed to ensure adequate and uninterrupted water supply to their localities and they have no choice but to either consume sub-soil unhygienic water or buy water through tankers and donkey-carts at exorbitant rates.

They disputed the claim of the officials that the tail-end areas of the localities hooked to the Hub source were being provided water free of cost.