SUKKUR, Aug 1 Many localities in Sukkur are facing acute shortage of drinking water for the last many days, as a result of which people are forced to fetch water from hand pumps installed in the low lying areas of the city.

It may be mentioned here that with the advent of summer season people of Sukkur, especially the residents of Old Sukkur, Qureshi road, Numaish road, Queens road, Wallace road, Islam Ganj and some other parts, were facing shortage of drinking water. So much so that the taluka municipal administration stopped supplying water to different localities for 24 hours as a whole, making the people to face miseries amid sizzling summer.

According to insiders, water works management

increase the quantum water supply to the ice factories depriving the citizens of their share of drinking water. Moreover, sources claimed that the valve-men don't open valves to their full capacity, due to which pressure can not be build-up which results into shortage of water. Sources said that despite spending millions on the repair and maintenance of water pumps and motors at water works, more than 50 per cent of the motors were lying idle, which shows incapability of water works management.

Dawn tried its best to contact in-charge water works, but his cell phone remained switched-off. When contacted, supervisor of water works Ashiq Shaikh denied shortage of water in any of the localities of the city and blamed Hesco for long outages due to which water supply to the people has become next to impossible.

On the other hand, the chief engineer power Sukkur, Shamsuddin Shaikh, jettisoned the accusations of water works management and maintained that like other parts of the city, only six hours of load-shedding during 24 hours was being carried out.