KARACHI, July 7: Residents of many water-starved localities, until recently depending on tanker service from the now closed LSR (Low Supply Reservoir) hydrant, are running from pillar to post to get water from an alternative hydrant. Although a week has already elapsed since the closure of the LSR hydrant, neither the Rangers nor the KWSB officials have come out with any plan to provide tanker water to these localities under the promised adjustments. They even could not arrange a helpline for the people in distress.

Of over 4,000 tankers drawing water from the LSR hydrant till June 30, around 3,000 are now selling water on commercial basis and the rest are engaged in supplies to the water-starved localities on a gratis basis.

The areas hit by the closure of the LSR hydrant include different blocks of Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Mehmoodabad, Manzoor Colony, Akhtar Colony, Gulshan-i-Jamal and a large number of localities adjoining these areas.

People of the affected areas are in a fix over the situation since July 1 when tanker operation at the LSR hydrant came to a halt. The indifferent attitude of the KWSB and Rangers towards the deprivation of the most essential commodity to the LSR beneficiaries could be gauged from the fact that the affected people have neither been informed that when they would resume getting tanker water, nor have they been told that from where they could receive the same.

When contacted by Dawn, Managing Director of the KWSB Brig Iftikhar Haider maintained that as a matter of fact, the Board had provided some additional filling points at Muslimabad, Sydnum and Sakhi Hassan hydrant to the Rangers for adjusting the tankers engaged earlier in supplying water from the LSR hydrant. “The Rangers nowadays are making hectic efforts to streamline the tanker service meant for these affected localities.”

Asked where the abandoned consumers of LSR hydrant water should go to seek relief, he said that the Rangers had deputed some of its personnel at the LSR hydrant site to guide such people. Besides, he added, they could also approach the hydrants where the previously LSR tankers had been sent under the vehicle adjustment plan.

Describing the Rangers’ decision of closing down the LSR hydrant as ‘bold and timely’, Brig Haider said that its closure had helped the KWSB improve the water supply position in a number of localities of Lyari and Saddar towns, especially those of the old city areas, through pipeline.

Meanwhile, taking undue advantage of the confusion and uncertainty created by the seemingly abrupt closure of the LSR hydrant, private tankers have been doing a roaring business in the affected localities by charging exorbitant rates. Before June 30, the rate for a single tanker was Rs200, a double tanker Rs350 and for a triple tanker Rs500, but the same have been increased to Rs500-600, Rs1,000-Rs1,200 and Rs1,500-1,600, respectively.

A resident of Gulistan-i-Jauhar told Dawn that it was shocking to see that the private tanker he arranged for Rs500 from Sakhi Hassan hydrant had brought muddy water, polluting the underground tank of his house.

According to sources, some private tankers are parked in the periphery of Muslimabad and Sakhi Hassan hydrants merely to give an impression that the water they carried had been drawn water from these hydrants. It has, on the contrary, been observed that these tankers get water from some private hydrants.