KARACHI, Feb 21: Almost all localities hooked to Hub dam source are expected to get filtered water from June following completion of the Hub filter plant.

Confirming this, KWSB managing director Brig Iftikhar Haider told Dawn that work on the filter plant, which is being constructed near Hub pumping station, has been expedited.

However, independent sources in the KWSB claimed that even after completion of the Hub filter plant, 20 per cent population of the localities hooked to the Hub source will continue to get unfiltered water as the plant has a capacity to filter only up to 80 mgd whereas the KWSB gets between 90 and 95 mgd from the dam when its reservoir has sufficient stock of water.

The localities which are getting water from the Hub dam include Orangi Town, Baldia, Surjani, SITE (Both residential and industrials areas), Qasba, Shershah and different sectors of North Karachi.

At present, all these localities are being supplied only chlorinated water from the Hub dam, and the residents of the localities have repeatedly been demanding provision of filtered water to them.

The residents of the localities have expressed their reservation over the quality of water they get from the Hub source as water they are supplied first passes through a 19 kilometre long open canal before reaching the Hub pumping station and their taps.

Initially, the 19 km long open canal was being maintained and manned by the Wapda but Wapda has transferred the remaining 14 km long canal to Sindh government and it is since then, it was being maintained by the KWSB.

When an official of the Wapda was asked weather chances of some sabotage activity are possible in the open canal, he replied in the 'affirmative', saying although they have got watch and wards who keep a vigil on the activities of anti-social elements on the five km long canal, the KWSB has no such arrangement.

The KWSB, he said, did not agree to absorb the Wapda's watch and ward officials when the control of the 14-km long canal was handed to the Sindh government.

However, the KWSB managing director told Dawn that the KWSB has recently hired services of about 40 persons on contract basis for keeping a vigil on the canal and to check whether any person was indulging in activities which amount to polluting the canal. People who frequently visit Hub dam and Hamdard University that they have often seen drivers of trucks taking a bath in the open canal.