KARACHI, April 15: Residents of different blocks of New Karachi on Tuesday staged a protest demonstration to voice their anger over the persisting water shortage in their localities.
The protesters, who had assembled at New Karachi’s Allahwali Market, raised slogans against the officials concerned of the city government’s water and sanitation department, and demanded immediate restoration of their supply.
They said although various blocks of New Karachi (blocks 44 to 54) had been experiencing acute water shortage for the last four days, the officials concerned of the water and sanitation department had not yet taken measures to restore the normal supply, despite a number of complaints lodged with them.
However, a spokesman for the W&S department alleged that the protesters were actually raising slogans against their Union Council Nazim, Subhan, as he was responsible for getting diverted the supply of the affected areas to a nearby kachchi abadi from where he had bagged a large number of votes as UC Nazim.
About the incident on Monday, in which the W&S department’s North Karachi office was ransacked, the spokesman claimed that it was done at the behest of another UC Nazim, Hafiz Ahmed Ali, who, despite the assurances given to him by the XEN concerned at 12 noon on Monday, that their localities would be supplied water from 4pm to 3am, brought a number of protesters to the office at 1pm the same day and caused the ugly incident.
The spokesman said such acts were ‘uncalled for’ interference in the working of the W&S department.
SHORTAGE: Acute water shortage persisted in North Nazimabad’s Block N and Buffer Zone’s sector 15-A-5 for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday.
Residents of the affected localities said although they had been deprived of water for the last four days, the officials concerned of the W&S department seemed least interested in resolving the lingering water issue.
They demanded that the city Nazim and the W&S department’s EDO direct the officials to immediately restore supply to their localities, as they could not afford to buy private water tankers for such a long period.
The localities and places which went without water 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.
CLOSURE: The localities where water supply would remain suspended on Wednesday include Old City Area, Garden East, Garden West, Soldier Bazaar, Saddar, Shikarpur Colony, Cosmopolitan Society and parts of Lyari.
