KARACHI, June 16: A part of Lyari Town remained disturbed on Monday, as protest against acute water shortage continued in Union Council No 6.

Groups of angry youth marched through various localities of the union council and blocked main roads and arteries, including Mauripur Road, a section of Shah Waliullah Road and Shah Bhittai Road.

The protesters raised slogans against local bodies members and officials of Water and Sanitation Department. They shouted slogans like “we want water, not hollow pledges” and burnt tyres in protest to block the roads.

Closure of several routes led to the worst kind of traffic jams on Mauripur Road and narrow streets in the adjoining areas.

The worst affected areas included Nawabad, Darayabad, Kalri Hingorabad, Shah Beg Lane, Baghdadi and Moosa Lane. The protest stranded thousands of commuters around the troubled areas of the town for many hours.

An eyewitness said that the disturbances erupted in Hingorabad, when the residents distressed by acute water shortage burnt tyres and blocked Mauripur Road near Crown Cinema and Shah Abdul Latif Road.

Hundreds of protesters comprising men, women, youth and children from Ali Mohammad Mohallah, Hingorabad, Shah Baig Lane, Eidu Lane, Moosa Lane and other adjacent localities, converged on Mauripur Road and Shah Latif Bhittai Road demanding normal supply of water.

For the last 18 years, they said that the inhabitants of these localities had been facing acute water shortage.

The residents had been constantly pressing the authorities for adequate water supply, but the authorities had not paid any heed to their grievances, they added.

The residents criticised the elected representatives of local bodies of showing indifferent attitude towards their day-to-day problems. However, the members of local bodies blamed the concerned officials for creating “artificial crisis” to tarnish their image.

The mounting pressure of the residents of Shah Beg Lane Union Council even had forced the City Nazim and concerned officials to visit the affected areas of the Lyari Town in the past.

As a result, partial supply was restored on temporary basis, but the overall supply position did not improve.

The officials of Water and Sanitation Department denied that there had been a serious water shortage in the town, saying that “an artificial water crisis” had always been created to achieve political objectives by influential people.

Lyari Town’s Naib Nazim, Malik Mohammad Khan Awan, told Dawn that the city Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, had called a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the Lyari’s persisting water problem.

The meeting to be held at the Nazim Secretariat at 12 noon will be attended by officials of water and sanitation department, Lyari Town’s Nazim, Naib Nazim and nazims of different union councils.

Complaints of persisting water shortage have also been received from different sectors of North Nazimabad’s Block D, Clifton’s blocks 4 and 5, North Karachi’s Sector 11-C, Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s blocks 13-D and 4-A, including Azim Goth.

Meanwhile, the localities which went without water on Monday under the weekly water-holiday system included all blocks of North Nazimabad, Federal B’ Area, Nazimabad, Shadman Town and Buffer Zone.

CLOSURE: Water supply to Clifton, Gizri, Dehli Colony, Punjab Colony, Shirin Jinnah Colony, Jinnah Hospital, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Naval Officers Residents Estate-I, Bhutta Village and Navy Dockyard, will remain suspended on Tuesday.