KARACHI, March 31: Several parts of the city went without water on Monday apparently owing to a short supply from Dhabeji (old) pumping station.
The city has already been experiencing water shortage for the last four/five days due to the 50 million gallon per day deficit in overall supply. The situation in certain areas, including different blocks of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Scheme-33, Gulistan-i- Jauhar, North Karachi and parts of the Old City, further aggravated on Monday with the fresh shortfall.
Insiders told Dawn that the city’s supply from Dhabeji’s both old and new pumping stations had been dwindling because of repair work on an 84-inch dia rising main of Dhabeji (phase-I) pumping station. The pipeline, they added, was damaged due to the jerk caused by last week’s power failure at the pumping station.
They said that though the city government’s Water and Sanitation (W&S) Department had not been disclosing to the public that the city was not being supplied with the full quantity of water from Dhabeji (Old) pumping station in the wake of the rising main’s repair, the city even on Monday received a short supply of about 50 million gallons.
However, a senior official of the W&S Department, confirming that they had undertaken the repair work, claimed that the normal supply was restored on Sunday after completion of the work on the damaged pipeline.
Attributing the damage to the electrical jerk, the official said: “Had there been a slackness in the repair work, the city could have experienced a serious water crisis as the leakage caused be the damage could ultimately have burst the pipeline.”
CLOSURE: The localities which went without water on Monday under the weekly water-holiday system included all blocks of North Nazimabad, Federal B Area, Nazimabad, Shadman Town and Buffer Zone.
Water supply to Clifton, Gizri, Delhi Colony, Punjab Colony, Shirin Jinnah Colony, Jinnah Hospital, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Naval Officers Residents Estate-I, Bhutta Village and Navy Dockyard will be suspended on Tuesday.
FILTHY WATER: Over 100,000 people residing in various apartment blocks of the congested area of Napier Quarters have been receiving contaminated for the last one week.
Residents of the affected locality complained that they were exposed to the water-borne diseases and that a large number of the area residents had already fallen sick after consuming the filthy water. They pointed out that cases of diarrhoea and other stomach ailments were on the rise in the whole area with worst hit being Sarafa Bazaar and Kamil Gali.
Suspecting that sewage water might have been seeping in to the potable water pipeline, they demanded of the City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan and Water and Sanitation Department’s EDO to direct the concerned officials to rectify the fault.
