KARACHI, Oct 28: Bulk water consumers, including the Defence Housing Authority, Clifton, Malir and Korangi cantonment boards, cried out in agony as the KWSB disconnected the supply to around 200 key organisations and major installations on Saturday and Sunday.
They alleged that the KWSB severed their connections without prior notices.
However, a spokesman for the KWSB claimed that the move was aimed at recovering its water dues from its bulk consumers, which had soared to over Rs5 billion and before resorting to the action the water utility had issued the defaulters notices, asking them to clear their outstanding dues by Oct 27. But, he insisted, they failed to do so within the stipulated period.
“Even the prime minister’s adviser on finance, Salman Shah, who had convened a meeting of all stakeholders of the KWSB, including the defaulting federal ministries, a couple of months ago in Islamabad, had asked the defaulting organisations to clear the KWSB’s dues. But none of them has, so far, paid any heed to the adviser’s directive,” the spokesman added.
According to the KWSB, its defaulting consumers include various local offices of different federal ministries such as science and technology, ports and shipping, food and agriculture, finance, atomic energy, petroleum, natural resources, commerce and industries, etc.
The KWSB on Sunday disconnected the water connections of major industrial and commercial organisations including Pakistan Steel, Pakistan Railways, the National Stadium and a number of hotels, textile and flour mills.
According to the KWSB, a huge amount of Rs1.2 billion is outstanding against Pakistan Steel and Rs160 million against Pakistan Railways under the head of water and conservancy charges.
The other organisations whose water connections were disconnected on Sunday include Khawaja Autos Landhi (Rs1.8 million outstanding), Premier Extraction (Rs2.8m), Gul Enterprises (Rs0.24m), Jadoon Cold Storage (Rs0.11m), Commodities Textile (Rs0.54m), Saqib Industries (Rs7.5m), Opel Laboratories (Rs0.3m), Hyderi Flour Mills Korangi (Rs0.44m), RCD Ball-bearings (Rs1.1m), Johnson and Johnson Korangi (Rs1.41m), Alcop (Rs0.6m), Yusuf Textile (Rs5.1m), Ibrahim Hyderi (Rs3.2m), Mohammed Aslam Poultry (Rs1.33m), KN Academy (Rs1.1m), Ms Riffat Saleh Dumloti (Rs0.44m), Shaikh Arshad Javed (Rs0.7m), Khalid Mahmood Dumloti (Rs0.8m), Abdul Rasheed (Rs0.62m), National Stadium (Rs10.5m), Hotel Avari Towers (Rs0.63 million), Hotel Mehran (Rs0.2m), International Frozen (Rs1.7m), Hotel Faran (Rs0.2m), Lateefi Cooperative (Rs4m), Capital Cooperative (Rs0.2m), Gulshan-i-Noor (Rs0.24m), National Cement Industries (Rs0.13m), KDA Cooperative Housing Society (Rs57m), SNH Industries (Rs1m), Mercury Garments (Rs2.4m), Panafic Industries (Rs1.4m), Karachi Feeds (Rs1.2m), Mohammed Omer Qureshi and Brothers (Rs7.3m), Al-Habib Restaurant (Rs0.8m) and Ottawa Cooperative Society (Rs0.9m).
In addition to the above organisations, the KWSB also disconnected the water connections of various other big and small commercial and industrial organisations.
The KWSB on Saturday had disconnected the water connections of Clifton Cantonment Board, Defence Housing Authority, Garrison Engineers Maintenance Karsaz, AEG Navy South, Garrison Engineers Air Faisal Base, Malir Cantonment Board, GEA Masroor Base, GEA Korangi Base, Korangi Cantonment Board, Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works, Dockyard and a number of textile and flour mills.
Reiterating that the drive against the KWSB defaulters would continue till they cleared their outstanding dues, a spokesman for the water utility warned that if the defaulters failed to clear their water and conservancy dues as early as possible, the KWSB would have no choice but to block their sewerage system as well.
KESC’s move
At a time when the KWSB is busy in disconnecting water connections of its major bulk consumers, its Karsaz offices as well as head office, situated behind the Civic Centre, remained without electricity for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday.
The KESC had disconnected the power supply of the KWSB main offices after the water utility failed to clear the electricity charges amounting to around Rs3 billion.
The KWSB officials said that the working of the utility has been badly affected owing to the non-availability of electricity at its head office and other main offices on Karsaz.
