QUETTA: Residents of Quetta have been facing hardship for the past five days because of the twin problems of shortage of water and long hours of loadshedding in most areas of the provincial capital.

A major part of Quetta has been without water since Wednesday when workers of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) went on a strike in protest against non-payment of salary.

On the other hand, sources said, the Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco) had increased duration of loadshedding to nine hours a day.

They accused the government of failing to take any action to get the water supply restored.

According to sources in the Wasa union, 1,700 employees of Wasa have not been paid their salaries for the past three months.

The delay in getting the four pylons, which fell because of strong winds, repaired is contributing to increased loadshedding.

However, the sources said, posh areas of the city and the cantonment had not been affected by the water shortage and outages. Water tankers of the Quetta Metropolitan Corporation and the Cantonment Board were continuously supplying water to those areas, they added.