KARACHI, Oct 29: Almost entire city experienced acute water shortage on Tuesday partly due to Monday’s major power breakdown at the KWSB’s pumping stations and partly owing to mismanagement in the distribution system.

The localities which either went completely dry or received scant supply on Tuesday included Old City area, parts of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, North Karachi, New Karachi, almost all the blocks of the F. B. Area, different cooperative housing societies, parts of Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Malir, Khokhrapar, several sector of Orangi and Surjani Town.

The other parts of the city where water was not supplied on Tuesday as part of the KWSB plan of diverting Indus water to the areas hooked to the Hub dam’s dried reservoir included Clifton, Gizri, Delhi Colony, Punjab Colony, Shireen Jinnah Colony, Bhutta Village, Naval Dockyard, NORE-1 and GE Army installation, Jinnah Post-graduate Medical Centre, National Institute of Child Health and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.

Water supply to the city from all the major pumping stations had remained suspended from 12.30pm to 4pm on Monday owing to a massive power breakdown that had occurred at the KWSB’s pumping stations following tripping of the KESC’s Extra High Tension Line between Bin Qasim and Pipri grid stations.

Though the KESC had claimed that power supply to the KWSB installations was restored within an hour, the KWSB officials asserted that since there was no electricity for three and a half hours on Monday at its major pumping stations — including Dhabeji, Pipri, Sakhi Hassan, LSR, Kidney Hill, Saudabad, Future Colony and Board Office — the city had suffered a shortfall of around 70 mgd. They, however, said that the normal supply to most of the areas would resume on Wednesday as situation had been brought under control.

Some of the localities where water supply would still remain suspended on Wednesday are Old City Area, Garden East and West, Soldier Bazaar, Saddar, Shikarpur Colony, Cosmopolitan Society and parts of Lyari.

The KWSB, under its water-holiday system introduced recently, used to suspend the supply to some localities once in a week on rotation basis. The system is aimed at diverting water to the sprawling townships of Orangi, Baldia, Surjani, North Karachi, Shershah and parts of the SITE industrial area to offset water shortage in these localities resulting from the suspension of Hub source.

However, complaints of persistent shortage in different sectors of Orangi and North Karachi continued to pour in. The hard-hit among these areas are Orangi Town’s Union Council No 9, Pakistan Bazaar, Ghausia Baluch Colony, Makhdoom Shah Colony (Sector 11 1/2), Ghaziabad (Sector 16), Aziz Nagar, Sector 15-D’s Thorani Goth, Bangla Bazaar, Sector 14, Block L of Sector 10 and almost the entire North Karachi.

Residents of the affected localities said that in the absence of water they have no choice but to consume sub-soil unhygienic water at the cost of their health.