KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MNA from Defence Housing Authority Aftab Hussain Siddiqui has raised concerns over a Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) decision to raise water bowser supply charges for DHA residents and demanded its reversal.

In his letter dated Sept 20, the MNA has questioned the “extremely steep and not justified” 50 per cent increase for residents who pay regular taxes to the CBC while advising the CBC to revise these charges immediately.

Previously, the CBC used to charge Rs500 per 1,000-gallon water tanker, which has now been increased to Rs750 per tanker.

According to CBC Secretary Sajjad Nazir, they are taking service charges. “The charges are not water charges but tanker services charges,” he explained to Dawn.

He also added that the said increase from Rs500 per tanker to Rs750 per tanker had happened after several years.

Water requirement of people living in Clifton cantonment jurisdiction has grown to 16MGD from 9MGD in 1999

‘Service charges revised after six years’

“People may say that the charges were Rs500 only a couple of months ago and now we are suddenly asking for Rs750 per tanker but the increase has come after six years. For the last six years, CBC had been charging Rs500 per tanker,” he pointed out.

MNA Siddiqui had also reminded CBC that ensuring adequate water supply via pipelines is their responsibility “and the basic right of every taxpaying DHA resident. However, these residents have long suffered due to shortage of direct water supply.”

The CBC secretary said that they had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding supply of water with the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) in 1999.

“Estimating the requirement of residents in the next five years, we had signed an MoU for nine million gallons a day (MGD) with KWSB. Now in these past 22 years, our requirement of the population here has grown to 16MGD.

“We never got that nine MGD but it was about six to seven MGD around 2017, which has now dropped even further to three to four MGD. CBC has been writing to the government regarding this matter. We have had many meetings with the managing director of the KWSB but in vain. There is a huge supply gap. We are just mediators here. If we had the water we would have surely distributed it all over,” he explained.

Call for introducing water metres

In his letter, the PTI MNA had also recommended introducing a water metering system, which can resolve the issue of billing according to the needs of residents. “This is of dire need and hence highly advised to be implemented,” he had written.

Similarly, some residents have also asked that if they were being charged for a basic utility such as water while also paying water bills as a part of their property taxes, why not gauge their water usage and pay accordingly?

The CBC secretary explained that they had also thought about it and tried it even. “Some years ago, we did try it as a part of an experiment in a specific area marked out for a model project,” he said, adding that it didn’t quite work out.

“The metres got choked because of the Total Dissolved Solids [TDS] in water. This is not electricity or gas that can be easily gauged through metering. It is water. And the water here has purity issues. Water with high TDS level or water concentration as well as hard water and soft water also affects gadgets such as water meters,” he explained.

“But yes, this area does require more research so that we can have meters that can bear the local environment. Water metering would be an entire new project but then here too there is danger of agitation from residents. I mean who is to pay for the meters? The end consumer? And should it be a one-time cost,” he aired some of the expected questions in that scenario.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2021