KARACHI, April 26: Various parts of the city either went dry or received scant water supply on Saturday in the current hot and sultry weather.
The hard-hit areas included seven out of the 11 union councils of Lyari Town and various other localities belonging to Malir Town, Bin Qasim Town, Landhi Town, Korangi Town and Shah Faisal Town.
Attributing Lyari’s water situation to the firing at Behar Colony pumping station on Friday, the city government’s water and sanitation department’s officials said that although the pumping station’s harassed staff, who had abandoned the station after the firing incident, had been persuaded to resume their duties and pumping of water from the station had been restored, the supply position in different parts of Lyari was still affected.
Nazim of UC-9 (Lyari Town), Habib Hasan, said that the worst affected areas include Singo Lane, Ali Mohammad Mohalla, Shah Beg Lane, Kalri, Agra Taj Colony, Behar Colony, Baloch Mohalla, Hingorabad, Niazi Chowk, Gulistan Colony and Chakiwarra.
Though the Nazim was of the opinion that Lyari’s water crisis was due to short supply of water, the W&S department claimed that Lyari was being supplied its approved quota of 13 million gallons of water per day.
Meanwhile, a senior officer of the W&S department told Dawn that Lyari Town’s Nazim, Abdul Khaliq Juma, on being apprised about the violent incidents which occurred on Monday and Friday, had convened a meeting of the Nazims of the Town’s union councils, urging them to cooperate with the officials of the W&S department in implementing the water-supply schedule in Lyari.
SHORTAGE: Water supply to a number of localities belonging to different towns was badly affected on Saturday owing to the short supply of water from the Dhabeji pumping station on Friday.
The hard-hit towns included Shah Faisal, Bin Qasim, Malir, Landhi and Korangi.
Admitting that the supply of the above towns was affected, officials of the W&S department said things would normalise on Sunday.
A spokesman for the W&S department attributed the poor supply to the towns to a shortfall of 46 mgd which they claimed was caused due to the 10-hour-long power failure that occurred at the Dhabeji (Phase-III) pump house from midnight to 10am on Friday.
Meanwhile, the localities which went without water on Saturday under the water-holiday system included PECHS, KDA Scheme-1, Sharfabad, Karachi Television Centre, KACH Society, Civic Centre and its adjoining localities, Mehmoodabad 5, Liaquatabad, Gharibabad, Furqanabad, Bandhani Colony and parts of Nazimabad, Liaquat National Hospital and Aga Khan Hospital.
