KARACHI, Feb 24: Despite restoration of normal water supply from Dhabeji phase-III pumping house to the city, there has been no let up in the water shortage persisting for the last three days.
Residents of Kharadar, Pakistan Chowk and its adjoining localities, Nazimabad Blocks 2 and 3, Clifton’s Block 2, Gulshan- i-Iqbal’s Blocks 4, 9, 10 and 13D-II, Shershah, different sectors of Orangi, Baldia and parts of Site industrial area, said that they did not receive water on the third consecutive day, Monday.
Apart from these areas, there were other localities which went without water on Monday as part of the programme, enforced by the city government’s Water and Sanitation (W&S) aimed at diverting Indus water to the localities hooked to the Hub Dam source. The affected localities included all blocks of Federal B Area, North Nazimabad, Buffer Zone, Nazimabad and Shadman Town.
The W&S department officials had claimed on Sunday that the overall supply to the metropolis would return to normal on Monday.
The water supply position had deteriorated on Saturday following power breakdown, due to cable fault, at Dhabeji phase- III) pumping house. The fault was rectified at 8.30pm the same day and the facility had resumed normal operation a few hours later.
Residents of various apartment blocks in Gulshan-i-Iqbal (Block 13D-2) complained that they had not been receiving water for the last 21 days. They pointed out that the supply was suspended on the 20th of Ramazan.
They and the people living in many other localities of Gulshan-i-Iqbal deplored that all their complaints in this regard lodged with the W&S department’s Complaint Centre as well as other concerned officials had fallen on deaf ears.
Suspecting some foul play on the part of valve-men of Gulshan’s Block 13D-2, the complainants said that it was beyond their comprehension that except for one apartment building, namely Rufi Apartments, all other apartment blocks were without water since the 21st of Ramazan.
They demanded of the City Nazim and the S&W chief to take steps for the restoration of water supply without any further delay as they could no longer afford costly water being supplied by the tanker operators.
“Isn’t it irony that on the one hand, we are made to pay water charges and on the other, being forced to purchase private tankers water at exorbitant rates,” an elderly man of the affected apartment building, Kashif Arcade, remarked.
CLOSURE: The localities where water supply will remain suspended on Tuesday include Clifton, Gizri, Delhi Colony, Punjab Colony, Shireen Jinnah Colony, Bhutta Village, Naval Dockyard, NORE-1 and GE Army Installation, Jinnah Post-graduate Medical Centre, National Institute of Child Health and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.
