17 November 2004	Wednesday	04 Shawwal 1425

KARACHI, Nov 16: Several parts of the city went either without water or received a scant supply on Eid days, giving boost to the sale of private tankers in the water-starved localities.

The hard-hit areas included Orangi Town's Sector 11 1/2, Ghausia Baloch Colony, Benazir Colony, Urdu Chowk, parts of Baldia's Saeedabad, Shershah, Lyari's D D Chaudhry Road, Bismillah Colony, Mithadar, Kharadar, Mehmoodabad No 6, Gizri, Malir's Saudabad, Jinnah and Al Hamra Cooperative Housing societies.

"Private tankers, which were in high demand in my locality, not only charged exorbitant rates but even supplied dirty sub-soil water to some houses," a resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal's Block 2 complained.

Residents of the localities said that in the absence of piped water they had no choice but to either buy private tankers at exorbitant rates or to consume sub-soil unhygienic water at the cost of their health.

The worst sufferers were, however, the people residing on Baghdadi's D D Chaudhry Road and all around Lyari Telephone Exchange as they not only went without water during Eid days but had been experiencing acute water shortage since July 31.

Residents of different parts of Baghdadi's Union Council No 5 deplored that though they had been deprived of water for the last more than three months, the KWSB officials concerned seemed to be least interested in restoring the normal supply despite the fact that over 30 written complaints had been lodged with them by the Mohalla Committee.

Attributing the cause of lingering water issue of the D D Chaudhry Road and its adjacent areas to illegal connections given to some multi-storied buildings and commercial ventures, the office-bearers of the Mohalla Committee said they were of the firm opinion that the water problem would not be solved until the KWSB staff posted in Lyari was shuffled on a large scale.

About Orangi Town's affected areas, a councillor of Orangi Town's Union Council No 9 said that they were supplied water with a low pressure and for a shorter duration merely because of leaking pipelines.

"We have repeatedly informed the KWSB officials concerned about the leaking pipelines, but they have taken no measures in this regard," Councillor Aftab Ahmed regretted, saying that the water from leaking pipelines was damaging roads and streets as well as resulting in a considerable amount of water going waste.