KARACHI, Oct 27: Residents of water-starved localities of Lyari Town on Monday staged a sit-in on the town’s busy Faqir Mohammad Durra Khan Road to voice their anger over persisting water shortage.
The protesters, including men and women, who kept the traffic blocked on the road, burnt tyres and pelted vehicular traffic with stones to express their indignation over the lingering water crisis.
They also chanted slogans against the concerned officials of the city government’s water and sanitation department, saying their localities, which include Kalakot, Nawalane and Lasi Mohalla had been deprived of water for the last five days.
Movement of vehicular traffic on the road remained suspended for about two hours and a heavy traffic jam was seen on its adjacent streets.
However, Lyari Town’s Naib Nazim, Malik Mohammad Khan Awan, went to the protesters and persuaded them to end their blocking of the road.
The protesters deplored that despite a number of complaints lodged with them, the water and sanitation department’s officials concerned had not yet taken any measures to restore the normal supply.
Later, a delegation of residents of the affected localities, headed by Lyari Town’s Naib Nazim, called on the W&S department’s chief at his 9th-Mile office and apprised him of the issue. According to a member of the delegation, the chief of the W&S department, Brig Asif Ghazali, assured them that their supply would be restored from Monday night.
CONTAMINATED WATER: People residing on Lyari’s D. D. Chaudhry Road and Yousuf Haroon West Road Nos 1 and 2, continued to be supplied contaminated water since long.
Residents of the affected localities regretted that despite lodging of at least seven written complaints with the W&S department’s superintending engineer concerned, no measures had so far been taken to rectify the fault responsible for supply of contaminated water to the area.
They demanded of the City Nazim and the W&S department’s chief to direct the officials concerned to immediately remove the fault as in the absence of pipe water they had no choice but to drink sub-soil unhygienic water at the cost of their health.
SHORTAGE: Various city parts either went dry or received scant water supply as the holy month of Ramazan began, forcing the residents of water-starved localities to either buy private tankers at exorbitant rates or consume sub-soil unhygienic water.
The hard-hit areas included North Karachi’s sectors 5C-1, 5C-2, 11C-1 and 11C-2; Buffer Zone’s Sector 15-A, Mehmoodabad, Akhtar Colony, Manzoor Colony and Clifton’s Block 2.
The residents urged the W&S department’s chief to direct the officials to ensure that normal supply to their localities in Ramazan as they could not afford to buy private water tankers for such a long period.
Besides, the other localities which went without water on Monday under weekly water-holiday system, included all blocks of North Nazimabad, Federal B’ Area, Shadman Town, Buffer Zone and Nazimabad.
CLOSURE: The localities, where water supply would remain suspended on Tuesday are: 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.
