June 27, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 22, 1429

KARACHI, June 26: The financially-starved Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) in its current drive against defaulters has disconnected water connections of around 70 retail and bulk consumers, including residential apartments buildings, cooperative housing societies, textiles and flour mills and different industries, in the last three days.

Though the campaign that began on Tuesday was meant for recovering around Rs4 billion owed to the utility, which had been outstanding against various departments and organizations of the federal and Sindh governments and a number of other major bulk consumers under the head of water and sewerage charges, the KWSB officials have not yet severed a single connection of any defaulting government organization or department.

On the contrary, the officials of the water utility’s revenue department have initiated the drive against retail consumers, despite the fact that the June 30 deadline fixed for such consumers has not yet expired.

A number of people residing in the affected apartment buildings have criticized the KWSB for “punishing them for no fault of their own.”

Claiming that they have already cleared their water bills, a number of affected residents complained that they have been deprived of water in the current hot and humid weather merely because other allottees of their apartment complexes have not paid their water bills.

When a spokesman for the KWSB was contacted to know the logic behind severing the water connections of even those consumers who had paid their bills, he said that since the apartments of a residential building are supplied water through the same lines, the KWSB has no choice but to disconnect the water connections of the entire apartment building.

He, however, clarified that the water connection of an apartment building is severed only when 50 per cent of its total allottees/occupants fail to clear their water dues.

Asked why the KWSB has not yet disconnected the water connections of defaulting departments of the Sindh and federal governments, he said that the utility will start disconnecting their connections in a couple of days.