HYDERABAD: Expressing concerns over water crisis in the city, Hyderabad Chamber of Small Traders & Small Industry President Mohammad Saleem Memon has attributed it to the failure of the Hyderabad Water and Sewerage Corporation (HW&SC).

In a statement, he said the recent spell of monsoon rains had paralysed the city and collapsed its drainage system. As the residents began to recover from the issue of stagnant floodwaters, a severe shortage of water supply gripped the city, pushing them into deeper distress. In many areas, he said, water was either unavailable or supplied in unhygienic condition.

The leader of small traders said the water corporation had failed in supplying clean drinking water to people, which had become a serious threat to public health, daily life and business community. He said the performance of the HW&SC had become a major question mark for the Sindh government.

He added that being a populous city, Hyderabad needed 650-670 million gallons of water daily whereas the corporation was supplying less than half of it. He said 20 million gallons of water lost due to outdated and rusted pipelines while most filtration and chlorination plants were non-functional, resulting in supply of untreated water to homes and commercial areas.

Trade leader suggests privatisation of water utility

Mr Memon said numerous meetings under the supervision of the commissioner were held to improve the HW&SC performance and committees formed, but no progress was made or action taken. That raises serious concern that either the institution was being intentionally allowed to fail or the government had lost interest in providing essential civic services to people, he added.

He stated that due to its incompetence and amid lack of water supply, tanker mafia was gaining a strong foothold in Hyderabad. He called for curbing this menace to ensure smooth water supply.

The trade leader said there was no justification to continue running the water utility under the government control; it was time to privatise it. If managed by a dedicated competent team, it had potential to become a good service provider, he observed.

He said recommendations and written proposals were ignored and such a prolonged negligence and bureaucratic indifference had brought the business community to a point of disappointment.

He demanded of the government to take immediate and concrete steps, including privatisation of the HW&SC, replacement of old pipeline infrastructure and restoration of filtration and chlorination plants across the city.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2025