KARACHI, June 6: Various parts of the city are either without water or getting scant supply for the last one week, forcing the residents of the affected localities to either consume sub-soil unhygienic water or purchase private tankers at exorbitant rates. The hard-hit localities include several parts of Malir, Model Colony, Saudabad, Khokarapar, Kazimabad, Jehan Complex, Clifton’s blocks 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7, Gulshan-i-Faisal, Baldia Town’s Saeedabad, Mehmoodabad, Manzoor Colony, Kharadar, Mithadar, Bhimpura, Ranchorre Lane, Haquani Chowk and Pakistan Chowk areas.

According to the residents of Malir and Model Colony, several parts of their localities have not received a single drop of water during the last eight days.

An elderly person of Malir complained that whenever they brought the lingering issue of water shortage into the knowledge of the KWSB officials concerned, they attributed it to the frequent power failures taking place at the pumping stations supplying water to their localities.

Residents of the affected localities also complained that on the one hand, they were deprived of water for the last one week and, on the other, their requests for provision of water through tankers also often remained unheeded for days together.

They demanded of the city nazim and the KWSB managing director to direct the officials concerned to immediately restore their supply as the persisting water shortage had made their lives miserable in the current hot and sultry weather, besides they couldnot afford to purchase private tankers for a longer period.

When an official of the KWSB was contacted by Dawn to know the cause of the persisting water shortage in different blocks of Clifton and Gulshan-i-Faisal, he alleged that some officials of the board’s water trunk main department often curtail the supply of the localities and as a result of which officials of the KWSB’s find it difficult in ensuring equal distribution of water in each block of Clifton and Gulshan-i-Faisal.

He, however, dispelled the impression of some residents of Clifton that their supply had been affected owing to the damage caused to a pipeline during the excavation work of an underpass being built at the Schon Circle on Clifton Road and Khyaban-i-Roomi intersection.

“In fact, water supply to none of the total six pumping stations of Clifton has been affected owing to the excavation work carried out at the Schon Circle,” he said, adding that only those consumers who had acquired illegal connections from an 8 and a 9-inch dia pipeline had suffered following their illegal connections were severed from the pipeline while undertaking excavation work in connection with a bypass being constructed at the Schon Circle.