24 April 2004	Saturday	03 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, April 23: Water supply position has started deteriorating in various parts of the city. It is adding miseries to residents of the affected localities in this hot and dry weather, besides giving a boost to the sale of water by private tankers.

The hard-hit localities include Baldia Town No 3, different sectors of Orangi's Town, especially those localities which fall under the jurisdiction of the Town's Union Council No 9 and Sector 10, parts of Jutland Lines, Taj Mohammad and Kamil streets of Kharadar's Sarafa Bazaar and Mehmoodabad.

Around 3,000 houses in Baldia Town No 3 (Union Council-7) are without water for the last couple of months and yet their repeated requests to the KWSB officials concerned for the restoration of normal supply have, so far, remained unheeded.

According to residents of Baldia Town's Gujrat Colony and Delhi Colony, they are supplied water only once in a fortnight with a low pressure. "Whenever supply is released to the pipeline of our locality, initially contaminated water starts pouring in our taps and the colour of water becomes normal after sometime," a resident of Gujrat Colony told Dawn.

Criticising the KWSB officials concerned for not taking interest in restoring normal supply to their locality, another resident of the Town's Delhi Colony deplored that in the absence of piped water in the current hot and dry weather, residents of his locality have no choice but to drink sub-soil unhygienic water at the cost of their health.

Regretting that the KWSB officials concerned have not yet taken measures to rectify the problem responsible for their lingering water issue, residents of both the colonies demanded of the city Nazim, Baldia Town's Nazim and the KWSB managing director, to help resolve their persisting water shortage problem as they cannot afford to purchase private tankers which are being sold at exorbitant rates.

Meanwhile, people residing on Kharadar's Taj Mohammad Street and Kamil Street, near Shafai Masjid, complained that although they have been experiencing an acute water crisis since the advent of summer, the KWSB officials have not yet bothered to rectify the fault responsible for persisting water shortage.

"When we pursue the matter with the KWSB senior officers, they send a team of engineers for undertaking survey of the affected locality but, so far, no practical steps have been taken to restore normal supply," an elderly person of the locality complained.

"We have also brought the issue to the notice of area Union Council Nazim, Razzak Sangani, but he, too, has not been able to help resolve this lingering water issue, he said, adding the perturbed residents might loose their temper and a law and order situation might be created if the KWSB officials failed to restore normal supply.

A similar complaint has been received from residents of Jutland Lane where around a dozen houses are without water for the last 10 days. "Although we lodged a number of complaints with the KWSB officials, they have not yet taken measures to restore the supply, thus forcing us to consume sub-soil unhygienic water and as a result of which several persons of our locality have already developed abdominal diseases," a resident of the locality added.