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KARACHI, Jan 16: An acute water shortage continues to persist in several parts of the city, forcing the residents of the affected localities to either buy private tankers or consume sub-soil unhygienic water.
Residents of the affected areas complained that their localities were completely without water or were being supplied scant supply for the last four days.
According to the residents of North Karachi’s Sector 5-C-1, over 50 houses, starting from House No 897, have been deprived of water for the last six days.
The other localities where water shortage has been persisting for the last four days include: Bahadurabad No 3, Maqboolabad, parts of PECHS Block, green belt area of PECHS Block 6, Adamjee Nagar, Lyari, Buffer Zone, Model Colony and Shah Faisal, Old Golimar, Wilayatabad, Clifton’s Block 2, Orangi Town’s Millat Colony, Aziz Nagar, Warsia Colony, Ittefaq Colony and Makhdoom Shah Colony’s Sufaid Chowk.
The residents complained that although they had brought the issue into the notice of the KWSB officials on a number of occasions, no measures have, so far, been taken to restore normal supply.
ORANGI TOWN: Nazim of Orangi Town, Shahid Alam alias Guddu Behari, has urged the KWSB not to demand water charges from the residents of the area for the period during which water to the locality remained suspended from Hub source.
Expressing his concern over the issuance of water bills to the residents of the town, he said it was unfair on the part of the KWSB to demand three or two years’ water charges from the residents, because water supply to the township from Hub had remain suspended during this period and most of the residents had to spend a handsome amount on purchasing water either through donkey-carts or tankers during the last three years.
Meanwhile, councillor of Orangi Town’s UC-9, Aftab Ahmed, has criticized the KWSB for providing only 22 ‘Kundimen’ to the Orangi Town, having 13 union councils, with a population of over 1.4 million.
He complained that at a time when Orangi’s sewerage system was already in a poor condition, more than half of the ‘Kundimen’ did not attend their duties regularly.
Endorsing the Orangi Town Nazim’s demand of exempting the residents from water charges for the period when water supply to the area remained suspended from the Hub dam, he suggested that the KWSB should demand water charges from the residents of the township from the date when supply to them was restored.
He deplored that although the officials of the KWSB had promised to supply water on a daily basis to the township, following the restoration of water supply from the Hub source, most of the localities of the township were receiving scant supply after every two days.
