KARACHI: People across the teeming city have complained about supply of contaminated water to their houses as the sewerage mains have broken down in many neighbourhoods and sewage has seeped into the water pipelines running parallel to sewer pipes.

A number of neighbourhoods in Karachi have reported the grave problem soon after the city received the first heavy downpour of the current monsoon season.

“People living in the neighbourhoods in almost all six districts of the city have complained about that; we have duly registered the issue and have directed the authorities concerned to rectify the matter,” said an official in the local government department.

A resident in Saddar’s Sarwar Shaheed Road area said that hundreds of households in the area were receiving contaminated water for a few days.

He said the officials concerned said the mixing of sewage with water had been reported from nearby marketplace of the city’s key business centre and despite the authorities’ assurances the issue was yet to be resolved.

Officials in the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board claimed the issue had duly been resolved after the broken down mains had been fixed near Lucky Star area.

Similar reports have been received from parts of Lyari, Jahangir Road, Baldia, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Liaquatabad, Keamari and other areas.

Officials said that most such complaints were rectified on time; however, there were certain areas where the problem was suffering delays because of certain technical issues.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2019