KARACHI, Nov 2: The ongoing campaign of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has so far failed to achieve the desired results reportedly due to multiple water connections taken by various industrial and commercial concerns and billing of various charges to a single bulk consumer.
According to sources, a huge amount of over Rs10 billion has been outstanding against innumerable bulk consumers and during the KWSB’s five-day long drive against the defaulters only Rs230 million has so far been recovered.
They said that the major hurdle in the recovery of dues was the multiple connections, which they alleged had been provided to the industrial and commercial concerns by the officials concerned of both the revenue and zonal engineering staff.
They were of the view that the campaign would have fetched a tremendous response if all the known and unknown water connections of all the defaulters would have been severed.
Meanwhile, a number of industrial and commercial concerns, particularly those belonging to Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), alleged that although they had deposited their water dues, the engineering staff concerned was demanding a heavy amount for restoring their water connections.
They regretted that although they had brought the issue to the notice of the KWSB high-ups, no action had been taken against the unscrupulous elements so far.
According to the KWSB chief revenue officer, Mehmood Qadir, the outstanding amount has soared to over Rs10 billion and the defaulting consumers include industrial and commercial concerns as well as different departments and organisations of various federal ministries.
However, the KWSB official rejected the notion that the campaign against the defaulting bulk consumers had fizzled out.
He said that on Thursday, the utility had severed a number of connections but failed to give the relevant details.
Even the KWSB director press had no information regarding the severed connections till Thursday 9pm. He said that the chief revenue officer, who was supposed to brief him about the campaign’s day-to-day progress, had not provided him with any details.
He, however, confirmed that the defaulting consumers in the last five days had paid Rs230 million. According to him, the KWSB on Thursday restored the water connections of Export Processing Zone, PSO House, Farooq Textiles, Qaudri Trading.
