KARACHI, May 8: The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board is launching a disconnection drive against the defaulters of water and sewerage bills on Monday in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and North Nazimabad towns after completing its task in Saddar and Jamshed towns. A spokesperson for the KWSB said that 83 connections were disconnected in a week in Jamshed Town to recover Rs39.93 million outstanding against the defaulters. A further 882 notices were issued to others.

In the Saddar Town, 145 connections were disconnected for recover Rs32.64 million, and some 199 notices were issued.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of the water board, Brig Iftikhar Haider, categorically stated that the water board was neither privatized nor bifurcated; however, its performance would be improved through public-private partnerships.

Speaking at a representative meeting of various trade unions of the water board on Saturday, Brig Iftikhar said the K-IV project like the K-III one would be initiated with the assistance of the federal government so that shortage of water in the city could be met.

According to him, the number of water board employees was less than that required to run such a huge system of supplying water and maintaining sewerage facilities in Karachi.

“The city has over 1.3 million water connections against its total employees of 9,000. That means that 1,000 water connections are maintained by six employees only. This is a very low ratio. Thus, the number of KWSB employees cannot be reduced,” he remarked.

He assured further promotions to employees through the Departmental Promotion Committee-II, and said that officers getting promotions would have to undergo one-year mandatory training.—PPI