GILGIT, June 3 The capital city of Gilgit-Baltistan is facing acute shortage of water, residents complained while talking to Dawn.

“Gilgit city, particularly Kashorte and Sonikote localities, is facing water crisis but the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has done nothing to solve the problem,” a resident said, adding that the complaint centres in different areas had failed to deliver.

Water supply lines have been blocked in parts of Gilgit city as mercury is soaring gradually. “There is no water in my home for the past two weeks and I have constantly been complaining but the officials have taken no action yet,” said Mohammad Ibrahim, a resident of Kashrote.

Owner of a hotel in the Airport Road area said that they had no water for the past many days and were forced to buy water from the market through water tankers to run the business. “So is the case of other people in other parts of the city,” he added.

“I have only one labour for excavation but no plumber is available as the influential staffers are either on leave or absent from duty,” said the in-charge of a complaint centre in the city, requesting not to be named.

The complaint centre in Kashrote has no staffer even to attend the calls of the consumers.

Executive Engineer Wasa Nazir Hussain, when contacted, claimed that he was trying to address the problems being faced by the public but said “things were not favourable”. The civic body's staffers were unable to go to different areas and repair the pipelines due to law and order situation, he claimed.

However, the Wasa official also pointed out some engineering faults as well. Sediments in pipelines were one of the main causes of water supply suspension, he said.

Remodelling of water tanks, he said, was in place which would overcome difficulties of consumers to some extent. Storage capacity of the water tanks would be increased from 0.06 million to over 100 million gallons per day, he added.

Mr Hussain said that some people were using drinking water for irrigation purposes and there was no body to put a check on the irregularities and misuse of water in the city.