KARACHI: Power cuts cause water shortage in many areas
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 20: Unannounced load-shedding at local pumping stations has caused a water shortage in many localities. The hard-hit localities are those which get water either on alternative days or after every 48 hours as under the KWSB water distribution system, if a locality goes dry on its turn because of power cuts or load-shedding at the respective pumping station it is not supplied water till the next turn. This way many areas often remain without water for two to three days and some localities could even go without water for even five days if power cuts disrupt their two turns.
Residents of the affected localities said the persisting water shortage together with prolonged unannounced load-shedding made their life miserable in the current hot and humid weather.
Blaming the prevailing water shortage on unannounced load-shedding and frequent power breakdowns, KWSB officials said although the KWSB’s vital installations, including local pumping stations, were supposed to be exempted from load-shedding, complaints of power outages continued pouring in from local pumping stations in various parts of the city.
Sources in the KWSB said that the KESC officials concerned had been approached repeatedly and a number of letters had been written requesting them to exempt the local pumping stations from load-shedding, as such a situation often resulted in a water crisis.
However, they said, all such requests had remained unheeded, adding that perhaps it was not possible for the KESC to spare the local pumping stations while resorting to load-shedding in the surrounding areas.
“Unannounced load-shedding at local pumping stations not only results in scant supply with low pressure to the affected localities but the pumping machines also get damaged owing to jerks they receive in the wake of sudden power failures,” the sources added.
Residents of different localities, particularly those living in apartments, complained that they got scant water on the one hand while on the other they could not pump water to the overhead tanks because of frequent load-shedding every day.
In the hot and sultry weather, several parts of the city remained in the grip of acute water shortage for a third consecutive day leaving the residents at the mercy of private tanker operators.
The residents of KDA Scheme-33, Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Gulshan-i-Iqbal said they had been experiencing acute water shortage since the start of summer. Accusing the KWSB officials concerned of creating artificial water shortage in their apartment buildings, they alleged that some of the officials who were in hand in glove with the tanker mafia, deliberately created such a situation merely to give boost to the sale of private tankers.
“As long as the welfare association of our apartments continues to grease the palm of valve-man, our supply remains normal,” said a resident of a housing complex, situated in Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s Block 13-D. He said that valve tempering was the main cause of water crisis in buildings of other areas where the residents’ associations failed to bribe the valve-man.
KARACHI, June 20: Unannounced load-shedding at local pumping stations has caused a water shortage in many localities. The hard-hit localities are those which get water either on alternative days or after every 48 hours as under the KWSB water distribution system, if a locality goes dry on its turn because of power cuts or load-shedding at the respective pumping station it is not supplied water till the next turn. This way many areas often remain without water for two to three days and some localities could even go without water for even five days if power cuts disrupt their two turns.
