0
KARACHI, Nov 16: A vast area of former district West and parts of former district Central went without water on Friday owing to the 24-hour closure enforced by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board for replacing a piece of a 33-inch dia Rising Main, near the Board of Secondary Education.
The localities and important installations which went dry in the wake of the closure applied from 8am on Friday included Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, SITE industrial area, entire Nazimabad, Paposhnagar, Pirabad, Pathan Colony Pump House, Banaras Pump House, Ashraf Nagar, Pahar Ganj and their adjoining localities.
Water supply to all the affected areas is scheduled to be restored at 8am on Saturday.
Residents of a number of affected localities complained that they could not store water to meet their requirement of the closure period mainly because they came to know about the 24 hours suspension of water through Friday’s newspapers and hence had no choice but to either drink subsoil unhygienic water or to buy private tankers at exorbitant rates.
A perturbed resident of Nazimabad Block 3 said that private tankers which were in high demand in his locality were charging between Rs500 and 600 per tanker.
“It is beyond comprehension why the KWSB officials took the decision of suspending the supply in such a haste knowing that the closure is being applied on Friday when the requirement of water goes up as against other days,” he added.
An official of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital regretted that the KWSB officials did not even bother to inform them in advance about the closure, thereby putting the hospital’s management in a fix, especially with regard to their schedule of undertaking surgeries.
Meanwhile, a large number of private tankers were seen moving towards the SITE Industrial Area as the water supply to the entire industrial area was also suspended for 24 hours, starting from 8am on Friday.
Unlike past practice of making announcement two days prior to any water closure, the KWSB made the announcement of Friday’s closure on Thursday evening, giving no time to the residents of affected localities to store water.
It was the second closure during a short span of 14 days as the last 36-hour long closure was enforced from Nov 2 to 4.
CLIFTON: People residing in Clifton’s Block 2 have been experiencing acute water shortage for the last couple of months.
Residents of the affected locality complained that they were previously being supplied water for two days in a week (Wednesday and Saturday) i.e. two hours on each day, but the concerned authorities first reduced the duration of the supply to only one hour and then to merely half an hour on both the days, causing acute water shortage in the locality.
Deploring that all their efforts in getting restored normal supply to their locality have, so far, remain unheeded, they urged the authorities to immediately help resolve the lingering water issue as the holy month of Ramazan had already begun.
