KARACHI, April 12: Private tankers on Monday had a field day in the wake of the water closure applied by the KWSB in almost half of the city to facilitate maintenance of two feeders.

The maintenance work has been undertaken by the KESC at Dhabeji pumping house. Tankers will continue to do the roaring business on Tuesday also, as the supply position is not expected to be normalized till late on the day.

Pumping from the Phase-III and K-2 installations of Dhabeji pumping house remained suspended on Monday when the maintenance work at two feeders was initiated. As such, water supply to various parts of the city was discontinued and the city suffered an overall shortfall of 70 million gallons of water.

The areas which suffered an acute shortage of water were Jamshed Town, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, North Nazimabad, Federal B Area, Lyari Town, Kharadar, Mithadar, Old City localities, Garden East and West, Bhutta Village, Mehmoodabad and Clifton, etc.

Residents of the affected areas complained that private tankers, taking undue advantage of the situation, charged exorbitant rates ranging from Rs500 to 600 per tanker. People of the low-income group who could not afford the expensive tanker water have to consume sub-soil water at the cost of their health.

Sources in the KWSB said that the pumping at Phase-III and K-2 installations was scheduled to be resumed after 5pm on Monday but the Board could not do so owing to the delay in completing the maintenance work at the feeders. They have, however, expressed the optimism that the supply to all the affected localities would normalized by Tuesday night.