KARACHI, Nov 4: Several localities in Jamshed, Orangi, Baldia and Saddar towns have been facing water shortage for the last one week while almost all blocks of Gulshan-i-Iqbal have been without water for the last three days.

Attributing the cause of water scarcity in Gulshan-i-Iqbal to the 33-inch-dia pipeline that burst near Baitul Mukarram Masjid, sources in the KWSB said the leakage had been plugged and all the affected blocks, including 18 and 13-A, B, C, D, D/1 and D/2, would start getting normal supply from Monday.

However, residents of blocks 2 and 10 say that they have been experiencing acute water shortage for the last couple of months but no practical step has been taken on their complaints so far.

Complaints of persisting water shortage have also been received from the residents of Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society’s Block 2, PECHS Block 6 (Green Belt Area), Chanesor Goth, Manzoor Colony, Mehmodabad, parts of Gulshan-i-Faisal (Bath Island), Clifton’s blocks 2, 3 and 4, Malir and Landhi, Pak Colony, SITE industrial area, North Nazimabad’s Block-P and Keamari.

Residents of the affected localities said KWSB central customers centre hardly took any measure on their complaints while telephones of chief engineers of their respective zones had been lying out of order.

Investigations revealed that telephones at the offices of five zonal chief engineers and other senior officials in KWSB head office had been lying out of order for the last three weeks. The KWSB officials whose telephone numbers have not been functioning since the last week of Ramazan include chief engineers of zones 1, 2-A, 2-B, 3-A and 3-B, director taxes/billing, human resource and administration and legal departments.Sources said although a number of telephones belonging to different important offices of the KWSB head-office had been lying out of order for the last month, no serious efforts were made to get these telephones restored.

Insiders told Dawn that though the KWSB drive against defaulting bulk consumers had come to a halt in Korangi industrial area, officials belonging to the utility’s taxes, meter and engineering departments had started preparing different lists of defaulters in Federal B’ Area, North Karachi and Landhi on one pretext or the other.