KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly was on Friday informed that the government would reintroduce a free tanker service from next week for the residents of water-starved localities in the metropolis.

Winding up the general discussion on an adjournment motion about an acute water shortage in Karachi, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon, who also holds the portfolio of the local government department, said that the government has made arrangements to provide free of cost water to the city’s underprivileged areas, particularly Baldia Town, Orangi Town, SITE, Gadap and North Karachi, through tankers from May 11 (Monday).

Take a look: Heated debate in Sindh PA on Karachi water crisis

The adjournment motion was moved by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Muhammad Hussain and besides him 12 other lawmakers, including one from the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, participated in the discussion.

Ten new hydrants likely to be opened in the city

Minister Memon claimed that there was no water shortage in Karachi, but there was some management issue for which the government had formed a committee for just distribution of water in Karachi.

He claimed that only five per cent of water was being stolen in the metropolis.

He said that the government had authorised the Karachi commissioner to grant permission of 10 new hydrants in different city areas to reduce the charges of water tankers.

He said that the work on the K-4 greater water supply project would start during the current month.

He said in addition to the issue of just distribution of water, the basic problem relating to water shortage was the incompetence of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board staff.

He informed the house that the monthly billing of the KWSB was Rs700 million while its recovery was only Rs400m. Out of the recovered amount, Rs300m was consumed on payment of salaries and the remaining Rs100m was being spent on maintenance and emergency expenditures.

Talking about overstaffing in the water utility, he said against the requirement of 7,000 employees, there are over 13,500 employees. Besides, the monthly electricity bill of the KWSB was Rs600m.

The minister lashed out at the K-Electric for carrying out four-hour loadshedding on KWSB’s pumping stations.

Terming the K-Electric “enemy of the citizens of Karachi”, he said that the power utility was violating court orders which clearly instructed it not to carry out loadshedding at the pumping stations.

He warned the K-Electric not to blackmail the government and if they continued to violate the orders of the court, the government would have no option but to arrest the K-Electric authorities.

Earlier, Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hassan said that hundreds of illegal hydrants were operational in the city and a huge quantity of water was being stolen on a daily basis.

He offered the government that if the KWSB management was given to the opposition, it would tackle all the problems within three months.

He said that Karachi was the city of every Pakistani and as such the governments of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan should also allocate funds for the metropolis in their budgets.

The mover of the adjournment motion, Mr Hussain of the MQM, initiated the discussion and said that 25 million people of Karachi were facing an acute water shortage, as the PPP government had done nothing to solve this problem.

He said Sindh contributed 70 per cent revenue to the national exchequer, but the federal government was not releasing funds for the K-4 water project.

MQM’s Irum Azim Farooque, Sumita Afzal, Waseemuddin Qureshi, Khalid Ahmed and Saifuddin Khalid, PPP’s Shamim Mumtaz, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional’s Mehtab Akbar Rashdi and Shaharyar Khan Mahar, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Khurram Sher Zaman, Hafeezuddin and Samar Ali Khan also spoke.

Meanwhile, the house adopted the Sindh Local Government (second amendment) Bill, 2015 to protect the municipal committees and municipal corporations, which were in existence prior to 2001 and notified thereafter by amending the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013.

The sitting, which was called to order at 10.40am, was adjourned till Monday by Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2015

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