KARACHI, May 25: Traffic at the KPT Interchange, on Korangi road, the expressway and Shaheed-i-Millat road was badly affected when residents of nearby Manzoor Colony took to the streets against a shortage of water in their area on Friday afternoon.

Residents of Sector-I of Mazoor Colony, who claimed to have received no water for the past seven days, blocked the main roads with rocks and chanted slogans against the government for failing to supply them with drinking water in the hot and humid weather.

Those on foot stood in front of the passing vehicles to stop them from going any further. Some youngsters on motorcycles, too, drove around in circles in the middle of the road to cause hurdles for motorists.

According to the water board XEN in Jamshed Town, Masood Kazmi, the problem was not as big as the people had made it out to be. “It was a minor thing but people, as you know, make mountains out of molehills,” the XEN told Dawn.

“There was not as much water shortage in the area as was being claimed by the people, and only smaller houses in the narrow lanes had not received water due to low pressure of the supply,” said the engineer.

Asked the reason for this, he said it was due to work underway at the COD filter plant. “The bulk water supply pipeline was blocked when a valve sheet collapsed either due to rust or some plastic box getting stuck in there. But we brought in a crane to pull it out in order to replace the sheet and clear the blockage,” he explained.