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KARACHI, Oct 20: Several sectors of different sprawling townships, particularly in Orangi, Surjani and North Karachi, have been experiencing acute water shortage for the last one week.
Residents of Orangi told Dawn that on one hand their localities had been deprived of water for the last seven days and, on the other, Rangers were selling water tankers to the residents, instead of providing it free of cost.
According to them, the Rangers are charging Rs150 for a tanker having 1,200 gallons and Rs300 for a tanker containing 2,400 gallons of water. They said the procedure for buying a tanker was so cumbersome that it took at least two days for the residents to get it.
A councillor of Orangi’s union council, Aftab Ahmed, said that a person willing to buy a tanker is required first to visit the Rangers’ office situated in Site industrial where he is provided a slip and then he has to go to another Rangers’ office at Orangi’s sector 10 (Islam Chowk) for getting the tanker.
“One can see long queues of people, including women, at both the Rangers offices,” he added.
Expressing concern over the concerned authorities’ decision to sell tankers to the residents of the water-starved localities, Nazim of Orangi’s UC-9, Shehnaz Perveen, described the act as a ‘double tax’, saying that on one hand, the KWSB had been issuing water bills to residents of Orangi’s hard-hit localities, while, on the other, they were being compelled to purchase tankers at exorbitant rates.
She demanded of the City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, to either provide water tankers free of cost to the residents of the water- starved localities or direct the KWSB not to issue water charges bills to them at least for the period their localities remained without water.
MQM’S CONCERN: Expressing concern over the prevailing water shortage, the newly-elected members of the Sindh Assembly belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement said that at a time when various parts of the city were already experiencing water crisis, the KWSB’s decision to introduce water-holiday system for the city would further aggravate the water supply situation.
TRANSFER/POSTINGS: The KWSB in a move to improve its working has made its superintending engineer (water trunks main), Najam Alam Siddiqui, as officer on special duty (OSD), asking him to report to the deputy managing director (HRDA) department. The SE-Water (central), Iftikhar Ahmed, has been given additional charge of SE (WTM).
Superintending engineer-sewerage (south), Asudomal, has been appointed as chief engineer (sewerage) in place of Suleman Chandio, who has been posted as DMD (technical services).
