KARACHI, Nov 22: Hundreds of men, women and children staged a noisy demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club on Friday against the persistent water shortage in certain areas of Lyari.

The protesters, residents of Shah Beg Lane, Chachchi Mohalla, Bandh Mohalla, Ali Mohammed Mohalla, Safi Lane and Baghdadi, raised slogans against the KWSB officials and demanded installation of a separate pumping station exclusively meant for their localities.

Deploring the interrupted water supply, after weeks of suspension, to their areas, they demanded a fair distribution system.

Addressing the demonstrators, President of Shah Beg Lane Welfare Alliance, Yousuf Lasi, recalled that the people of Baghdadi and Shah Beg Lane had specified the location — Ismaeel Shaheed Park — for the installation of a pumping station on the occasion of the completion of COD Filter Plant in 1995.

He alleged that the Town Nazim, who was a member of the provincial assembly at that time, “had preferred to appease ‘hotel and building mafia’ in exchange of a heavy amount as bribe.”

He urged the government to pay an immediate attention to the water problem in these localities. — PPI