KARACHI, Dec 9: Water supply to the entire Gulistan-i-Jauhar is being suspended from Wednesday for three days (from Dec 10 to 12) to undertake valve affixing work at a 48-inch dia pipeline near Safari Park.

The three-day water closure is being applied without providing an opportunity to the residents of the vast residential area to store water for meeting their requirements during the closure period. Water supply will have already come to a halt when they come to know about the closure.

Contrary to the KWSB’s past practice of informing the public about such closures at least two or three days in advance, the water utility, this time, issued a press release concerning the suspension of supply, on Tuesday evening, which means that the residents of Gulistan-i-Jauhar will know about the closure on Wednesday, when they have been hit by it.

Interestingly the residents of the locality have been requested by a spokesman for the KWSB through the press release to store water for the closure period.

“The valve affixing work for which the water supply is being suspended is expected to be completed in the next 48 hours,” the spokesman says.

Such an abrupt decision will compel the huge population of Gulistan-i-Jauhar, having more than 18 blocks, to purchase private water tankers at exorbitant rates.

In fact, the decision of applying a three-day water closure for Gulistan-i-Jauhar has been taken at a time when the city has already faced a shortfall of over 15 million gallons of water in the wake of a power failure that occurred at the Dhabeji pumping station on Monday. Already, a number of localities of the city on Tuesday experienced acute water shortage owing to the shortfall, and also because of the faulty water distribution system.

The localities which either went dry or received scant supply on Tuesday included Lyari’s D D Chaudhry Road (Union Council-5 Baghdadi) and its adjacent streets, Clifton’s Block 2, Nazimabad No 3, parts of Landhi and Korangi, Saudia Colony, Khokarapar, different localities of Orangi Town’s Union Council No 9, PECHS Block 6 (Green-belt Area), Mehmoodabad No 6, (Gizri (Upper), Paposhnagar and different sectors of North Karachi and Baldia Townships.

Residents of the most of the above-mentioned affected localities said that though the water shortage in the areas had been persisting for a fortnight, the KWSB’s officials had not yet bothered to take measures to restore normal supply, despite a number of complaints lodged with them.

They said that in the absence of piped water, they had no choice but to buy private tankers at exorbitant rates or consume sub-soil unhygienic water at the cost of their health.