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KARACHI Nov 12: Residents of Baghdadi and Shah Beg Lane union councils continued their protest against shortage of water supply for the second consecutive day on Tuesday.
The protesters had started a sit-in near Ali Hotel on Monday afternoon blocking vehicular traffic on Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Road. The sit-in continued till 11pm.
On Tuesday morning, a large number of men, women and children turned up again at the site and resumed their protest. To facilitate the women’s sit-in, the organizers had erected a tent near the hotel. Some of the enraged picketers put barricades along an adjacent road blocking it from Kalri Police Station up to Ali Hotel roundabout.
The Lyari Town Nazim and the area MNA-elect did visit the protesters but only after hours of their noisy demonstration that was supposed to end by sunset. On their arrival at the venue of the sit-in sometime after 10pm on Monday, they faced an embarrassing situation as the protesters refused to listen to them in a fit of anger. The two elected representatives tried their best to soothe the enraged people by assuring them of their utmost efforts to resolve the issue. In this regard, they told the protesters that the issue would be taken up with the City Nazim. They also suggested that the residents of the affected localities should nominate a three-member team to hold talks with the City Nazim and the KWSB officials.
Dissatisfied with the elected representatives’ offers, the protesters ended their sit-in at 11pm with a warning that they would resume the protest if normal water supply was not restored to their localities within 12 hours.
Soon after the passage of deadline at 11am on Tuesday, groups of protesters started converging on the Shah Latif Bhittai Road. Their number continued to surge in the following hours with small and big groups from different localities joining in. A complete chaos was witnessed in the entire locality when the venue of the protest turned into a mammoth rally and commuters had to change their routes towards narrow streets and lanes.
This is for the first time after the Oct 10 elections that the local PPP leadership is facing a tough time not from its rivals but from its own supporters.
MOTIVE: The unprecedented prolonged protest, intermittently turning violent with people resorting to agitation, has been motivated by the failure of the KWSB in honouring its repeated commitments with the residents of Lyari Town that they would be provided an additional quantity of water that would be sufficient enough to cater to the needs of the affected areas. The Board’s failure has led the situation turning from bad to worse with every passing day and finally resulted in the street protests.
There is a strong possibility of similar angry protests by the residents of Rexer Lane and Juman Shah Plot falling in Chawkiwara Union Council and Puri Lane of Rangiwara Union Council who have constantly been complaining of an acute shortage of water for weeks.
The indifferent attitude of the KWSB towards their agony has already made the residents of all the deficit areas preparing for an organized campaign to force the Board as well as other relevant authorities take remedial measures.
The gravity of situation can be gauged from the fact that Rexer Lane has been facing an acute water shortage for the last two months whereas Puri Lane has not even been connected yet with the main distribution system.
“Despite our hue and cry over a long period, not a single concrete step has been taken so far to resolve the problem,” the disgusted residents contended.
Another group of affected residents Shah Beg Lane said, “we have been making repeated appeals to various authorities and agencies, including the KWSB, for the redressal of water shortage problem but all the calls have so far fell on deaf years.”
MANIPULATION: A social worker of the area has alleged that valvemen, in connivance with the ‘water mafia’ have been creating an artificial shortage in the locality. They divert the supply to industrial units and illegal factories for financial gains, he added.
Moreover, he revealed, Lyari is not getting even its official share of 30mgd. He said that the town was being provided only 10mgd water which was absolutely insufficient to cater to the minimum requirement of the densely populated area.
Yet another reasons of water shortage becoming acute in some parts of Lyari for the last many years is defective water distribution system and illegal connections.
Residents of the affected areas have always been blaming valvemen for creating an artificial crisis.
The worst affected areas are: Ali Mohammad Mohallah, Ahmed Shah Bukhari Road (Kalri), parts of New Kalri, including Hingorabad and Shah Beg Lane (Shah Beg Lane Union Council), Saifi Lane, adjoining areas of Fida Husain Shaika Road (Baghdadi Union Council) and parts of Chawkiwara and Rangiwara union councils.
CONTAMINATION: The residents of Baghdadi have complained of contaminated water being supplied to the locality and said that it was not fit for human consumption.
They pointed out that the situation was aggravating day by day because of seepage from sewage that was penetrating into the potable water conduits in most of the areas. They further observed that the underground water and sewerage lines run parallel.
A social worker of the locality has claimed that gastroenteritis diseases have been on the rise in the area. He cautioned about the spread of epidemics if measures were not taken to rectify the situation immediately.
SHORTAGE: Acute water shortage persisted in several parts of the city on Tuesday.
The hard-hit areas included Quaidabad, Khokhrapar, Shah Faisal Colony, Clifton’s block 2, 5 and 7, Pak Colony, Rexer Lane, Qasba, parts of Lyari and the SITE industrial area.
The residents of the affected areas complained that although the acute shortage had been lingering on for the last couple of months, the KWSB had yet been able to ensure an uninterrupted supply even during Ramazan.
“Our localities either usually remain dry for days together or supplied water with such a low pressure that we cannot even store it even for one day,” a resident of Clifton Block 2 complained.
Similarly, residents of other affected localities complained that they hardly get the supply thrice in a week contrary to the KWSB’s off and on claim of six-day a week supply to all the areas hooked to the Indus source.
Residents of Federal B Area’s Block 14 complained that though the water supply to their locality was officially suspended for Monday, they did not receive water till 8pm on Tuesday.
The localities which went without water in the wake of the KWSB plan of diverting Indus water to the localities hooked to the Hub source included Clifton, Gizri, Delhi Colony, Punjab Colony, Shireen Jinnah Colony, Bhutta Village, Naval Dockyard, NORE-1 and GE Army installation.
Water supply to Jinnah Post-graduate Medical Centre, National Institute of Child Health and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases also remained suspended on Tuesday.
The localities where supply would remain suspended on Wednesday include Old City Area, Garden East, Garden West, Soldier Bazaar, Saddar, Shikarpur Colony, Cosmopolitan Society and parts of Lyari.
