KARACHI, Oct 23: Acute water shortage persists in Shanti Nagar, Union Council No 7 of Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town, having a population of over 0.1 million, where only 50,000 gallons of water is supplied daily and most of which is consumed by cattle- pen owners and influential people of the area through illegal connections in the mainline.

Due to short supply, most of the localities, including Sindhi Society, get water for half-an-hour after every two weeks as the managers of the water supply system have to resort to rotation in order to meet the requirements of twelve localities of the UC.

The residents of the area say that besides insufficient quota of water, its unfair distribution has greatly added to their miseries. According to them, over 40 cattle pens and 10 concrete block makers exist in the area who gain access to most of the water through illegal connections. It is alleged that these people have gotten one-and-a-half inch dia connections from the mainline after bribing operators of the water supply system.

The area people further revealed that some influential persons, including a sitting counsellor and a cattle-pen owner, have connections directly from the overhead tank of the water supply system.

The people said that the entire area has no proper water supply system and they get water through tankers and other means. Though a pipeline passes from the residential area to supply water to the National (formerly known as Dalmia) Cement Factory, people have no access to it for it being the property of the factory.

Half-a-decade back, the Sindh Public Health Engineering Department constructed an overhead tank and a pumping room, besides laying of service lines, but the scheme remained nonfunctional for several years as it had no water connection.

At a later stage, the factory was dismantled soon after privatization and its owner, Sikandar Jatoi, donated all the four pumping machines, along with a pumping house, to the Shanti Nagar Welfare Association, a NGO, that immediately took over and started supplying water to the residents.

In the meantime, some of the people formed the Village Development Association with the consultation of the PHED officials and took control of the water supply system. The PHED also got sanctioned a daily quota of 50,000 gallons water from the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board.

The arrangements were made under a World Bank-funded scheme and through it huge funds were also released to the VDA.

The system worked successfully for some time but after alleged illegal connections to cattle-pen owners and others by the VDA office bearers, it collapsed. Some of the people lodged complaints with the anti-corruption department, alleging that the VDA officials were selling water and embezzling funds provided by the PHED and the collection made from the residents as monthly contribution.

It also came to surface that the VDA officials had also not paid the dues of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation amounting to about Rs15 million. The matter is still pending with the anti-corruption department.

As the situation aggravated, people complained to Akbar Moroojo, the newly-elected Nazim of the UC, who took up the matter with the PHED officials and consequently the VDA body was suspended. On the advice of the public health officials, an adhoc body was formed to take over the system but it also failed to deliver.

After growing complaints, Abdul Wahab, Nazim of Gulshan-i- Iqbal Town, along with the PHED and water board engineers, visited the area last week but the issue of water shortage could still not be resolved.

Some influentials residing adjacent to the Works Society, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 19, have now gained unauthorized possession of one of the pump rooms along with two motor pumps and are manipulating to sell them.—PPI