KARACHI, Aug 31: Private water tankers continue to do a roaring business by selling sub-soil unhygienic water in the water-starved localities hooked to the fast-drying up Hub dam source, in particular, and other parts of the city, in general.

A large number of tankers which draw water from both private and the KWSB hydrants keep on shuttling between the hydrants and the water-starved localities throughput the day, causing damage to several major thoroughfares and important link-roads due to their leaking nozzles, besides making the roads slippery and hence dangerous for motorists.

Although there is a speed limit of 40 kilometres per hour for these tankers, but their drivers seldom abide by the rule and indulge in rash and negligent driving as a result of which a number of innocent people, particularly children and pedestrians, have either lost their lives or have been maimed in the recent past.

During a visit to the KWSB’s Muslimabad and Sakhi Hassan hydrants, one could see that a number of the surrounding roads and streets have already developed deep potholes and craters, causing inconvenience to motorists and motorcyclists.

Similarly, thick layers of bitumen of other roads, such as Jehangir Road, the main PIB Colony Road, Pak Colony Road, Rexer Lane, Fareed Bukhari Shaheed Road, Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society’s roundabout, a major portion of Sharah-i- Quaideen, parts of Sharea Faisal, National Stadium Road, Sir Shah Suleman Road and SITE industrial road, on which hundreds of water tankers pass every day, were being ripped off and the concerned citizens apprehend that these major thoroughfares would also meet the same fate as that of Nishtar Road which had completely ruined owing to frequent movement of tankers and had remained impassable for more than a decade.

This road was, however, recently reconstructed by the city government at a huge amount following City Nazim Naimatullah Khan and Jamshed Town Nazim Ahmed Parekh took a bold decision not to allow any hydrant to operate in its vicinity as these hydrants were the root cause for the road’s devastation.

The presence of tankers in various streets in residential areas of Muslimabad and Catholic Colony and other surrounding roads of Muslimabad hydrant, from where around 3,000 tankers are supplied to different water-starved localities, has also become a permanent source of nuisance for the residents.

“Drivers and cleaners of tankers drawing water from Muslimabad hydrant not only park their vehicles along the boundary walls of our bungalows, but also often shout at each other using abusive language, which causes an embarrassing situation for us,” remarked an old resident of Muslimabad.

“Can’t the people at the helm of city’s affairs shift the hydrants to some other non-residential area to save us from the mental agony which we have been experiencing for a long time,” another perturbed resident, Rahim Motiwalla, asked.

A woman resident of Catholic Colony told Dawn that it was beyond her comprehension how her locality often faced acute water shortage when a fleet of tankers kept on fetching water from the nearby Muslimabad hydrant throughout the day.

Voicing her concern over the frequent movement of water tankers in Muslimabad and Catholic Colony, she demanded of the City Nazim and the KWSB managing-director to immediately shift the hydrant to some other locality as any negligence on the part of tanker drivers might result in collision with the school vans which keep on rushing to and from a number of schools situated in and around Muslimabad and Catholic Colony as well as in its vicinity.