KARACHI, May 29: Lyari Town Nazim Malik Mohammad Fayyaz has welcomed the assurance made by the city nazim that Lyari would be given additional six million gallon water within 45 days.

City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal had recently stated that work on the delayed project costing Rs280 million meant for supplying additional water to Lyari had been undertaken and directives had been issued to the agencies concerned to ensure its timely completion.

The town nazim welcomed the statement and said the work on the project had been undertaken a year ago but it was stopped due to unknown reasons. He expressed hope that Karachi Nazim would honour his commitment and would implement the project.A survey of the town shows that the water shortage in Lyari is much more serious than in any other part of the city. There are localities which did not receive water for the last many years. Residents of a few areas which receive water once in many months complain of contamination saying that sewage mixed water due to defective and leaking sewage lines was unfit for human consumption. Since Lyari lies at the tail-end of Karachi’s water distribution system, it also suffers the most from any diversions.

Moreover, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board has failed to keep the pace with the population growth. Water pilferage has increased exacerbating water problem in Lyari.

Earlier, an inspection of several water pumping stations in the localities showed that a large share of water allocated to Lyari were being diverted to other areas. According to the survey, Lyari receives 30,000 gallon a day instead of its official share of five to six million gallons a day.