KARACHI, Oct 30: Sindh Chief Secretary Ejaz Qureshi on Tuesday intervened to help resolve the ongoing water crisis a number of organisations and departments belonging to different federal ministries are facing in the wake of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board’s current drive against defaulting bulk consumers.

Presiding over a special meeting called to find out the ways and means to overcome the crisis, the chief secretary directed all affected government organisations to deposit 10 per cent of their total water dues so that the KWSB could restore their connections.

The meeting, which was attended, among others, by the provincial secretary finance, secretary local government, DCO Karachi, Pakistan Steel’s director land and estates and the KWSB managing director, was told that the federal government has convened a meeting in mid-November in Islamabad where the defaulting ministries would be apprised about the government’s final decision concerning their outstanding water dues.

The KWSB, during its current drive against defaulting bulk consumers, had disconnected the connections of Pakistan Railways, Pakistan Steel, Defence Housing Authority, the Clifton, Malir and Korangi Cantonment Boards, Dockyard, Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works and a number of other installations belonging to the navy and air force.

Meanwhile, the KWSB’s campaign entered its fourth day on Tuesday when more than 100 industrial and commercial connections were severed, thereby raising the number of connections disconnected to over 500 so far.

Reiterating that the drive against the defaulting concerns will continue till the recovery of its dues, a spokesman for the KWSB sounded a warning to the defaulters to clear their dues at the earliest, or else the utility would be forced to block their sewage system as well.

“We have already planned that in the first phase of the drive we will go for disconnecting water connections of the defaulting bulk consumers and in its second phase, the sewerage connections of the organisations will be blocked,” he added.

Asked when the drive’s second phase is schedule to begin, he said that though no firm date has been fixed so far for such a campaign, the KWSB will not hesitate in creating blockages in the defaulting bulk consumers’ sewerage lines to recover its dues, which are badly needed to overcome the utility’s financial crisis.