KARACHI, June 22: Independent sources in the KWSB have described the water shortage in the city as ‘artificial’, saying such tactics were usually applied to boost the sale of water through private tankers, which were doing a roaring business nowadays in water-starved localities by charging exorbitantly.

Sources also admitted that a number of localities such as Malir, Landhi, Lyari, Clifton blocks 2, 5, 7 and 8, Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s blocks 13, 13-D/1, 13-D/2, 13-D/3, 14 and 18, parts of Ranchore Line, Akhtar Colony and Mehmoodabad had been facing acute water shortage for the last eight to 15 days.

At a time when several parts of the city were in the grip of acute water shortage for the last one week, frequent power failures at the KWSB’s major pumping stations had badly disrupted water supply schedules at various localities, adding to citizens’ miseries in the current hot and sultry weather.

On one hand, an artificial water shortage had been created while on the other, various localities often became victims of power failures or unannounced load-shedding, they said.

They added that the seriousness of the issue could be gauged from the fact that if a locality whose turn of getting water came after three days, it usually remained without water for six consecutive days if there was a power failure at the said locality’s pumping station.