KARACHI, March 13: Several parts of the city are either without water or getting scant supply for the last many days, leaving no choice for the residents of the affected localities to purchase private water tankers at exorbitant rates.

The hard-hit areas which are in the grip of acute water shortage include Mehmoodabad, Manzoor Colony, Clifton’s blocks 4, 5 and 7, Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s blocks 4-A (Journalists’ Society), 13-D, 13-D/1 and 13-D/3, parts of Lyari, Orangi and Baldia.

Residents of the affected localities deplored that although they had been experiencing acute water shortage for quite sometime, the KWSB officials concerned have not yet taken measures to restore normal supply despite a number of complaints had been lodged with them.

Attributing the persisting water shortage to a sudden reduction of bulk supply from the source, sources in the KWSB said that the officials of water distribution department had themselves been facing difficulties in managing the supply in the wake of a cut applied in the quota of several localities by the officials associated with the KWSB’s bulk water supply wing.

“We are in a fix nowadays as the officials of the bulk supply wing have not taken us in confidence before reducing the quota of water of several localities,” an official of the KWSB water distribution department admitted.

He said that the officials of the bulk water supply wing had developed a habit of not intimating us in advance before applying a cut in quota of water of localities although it was mandatory upon them.

Residents of Mehmoodabad, Manzoor Colony, Orangi, Baldia, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Clifton and affected parts of Lyari said that since water shortage had become a matter of routine in their localities they had no choice but to either purchase private tankers at exorbitant rates or consume sub-soil unhygienic water at the cost of their health.