KARACHI, Nov 4: About 500 houses in North Karachi’s Sector 11-C-3 are without water for the last five years.

In the absence of piped water, residents of the locality said they had either been purchasing tankers or drinking sub-soil unhygienic water.

They claimed that valvesmen were creating an artificial water shortage for giving a boost to the sale by tankers.

The Concerned Citizens Association and the Sir Syed Town’s Anjuman Falah said although they had lodged a number of complaints with the KWSB’s executive engineer concerned and other senior officials, the locality was still without water.

Criticizing the officials concerned for not taking measures for restoration of supply to their locality, convener of the CCA, Central, Capt (Retd) S G Mohiuddin, said it was beyond one’s comprehension how supply to hydrants remains unaffected whereas many localities often go without water for months together. As far as their locality was concerned it had been facing water shortage for the last five years, he said.

In a letter to the KWSB’s XEN concerned, he suspected foul-play in the water distribution system, and urged the KWSB managing director, Brig Asif Ghazali, to help resolve the lingering water issue.

A similar complaint has been received from Lyari’s D D Chaudhry Road and Yousuf Haroon West Road Nos 1 and 2.

“Isn’t it an irony that our locality is either supplied contaminated water or it remains dry for weeks together,” remarked an elderly man, Aziz Khatri.

Although residents of the affected locality had lodged a number of complaints with the XEN and the SE concerned, none of them took measures to ensure clean and normal supply to the locality, he said. He showed at least six letters which he had addressed to them from time to time.

He urged the KWSB MD to direct the officials to rectify the fault responsible for contaminated water supply, ensuring that the affected locality starts getting normal water during the current month of Ramazan, or else some serious abdominal diseases might break out in the locality owing to consumption of sub-soil unhygienic water.