October 1, 2007	Monday	Ramazan 18, 1428

KARACHI, Sept 30: Two major departments of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) continued to trade allegations against each other amid persisting water shortage in many towns of the metropolis.

There has been an acute shortage of water for more than a week Gulistan-i-Jauhar’s blocks 14, 17, Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s blocks 2, 10, 10-A, Mehmoodabad, Manzoor Colony, parts of Scheme-33, B-1 Area of Sindhi Hotel, Liaquatabad, Korangi No.2 (T Area), parts of Qasba, Baldia and Orangi, Gulshan-i-Faisal (Bath Island), Clifton’s blocks 2, 4 and 5, North Nazimabad’s blocks J and P (Hussain D’Silva Town), Pak Colony and Site’s residential and industrial areas, besides cooperative housing societies located in the affected towns.

The KWSB’s distribution department has claimed that the shortage is the result of a short supply from the bulk supply department, and maintained that it could do nothing to overcome the shortage in a situation where water was already in short supply from the source.

The engineering staff of the concerned zones said the distribution department was not getting the same quantum as was being made available to it before Ramazan and the current shortage was the ultimate result of an increase in demand during the fasting month.

The engineers claimed that the per day supply they were receiving from the bulk supply department was far less than the approved quota meant for the localities falling in their zones.

Refuting the allegation, the bulk transmission and distribution (BTD) department said that there had been no cuts in the approved quota of any of the five zones.

The officials concerned in the department claimed that the shortage currently being faced by people in these zones was a result of the flawed distribution network. They said the engineers of the distribution department should rectify the faults responsible for the leakage, pilferage or some other problem to ensure an adequate supply to all zones.

“In fact, the zonal engineering staff was simply shifting the blame on the BTD instead of taking appropriate measures to improve the distribution system,” a BTD official said.

Contaminated water

About 1,000 households in Korangi No.2, Sector 48-B, have been receiving contaminated water for the last three years, residents of the affected locality complained on Sunday.

They said that diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases were on the rise in these localities. The contaminated water has already polluted the underground tanks of these households, they added.

They appealed to the authorities concerned to rectify the fault responsible for the problem so that they could stop buying expensive water for daily consumption.