KARACHI, July 10: As the KESC and KWSB indulge in blame game over unpaid dues the water supply to five industrial clusters in the city has been severely affected with production activities coming to a halt.

Industries with higher water consumption generally work as an ancillary to value-addition industry which is directly involved in exports, affecting over 8,000 medium- and large-size units, industry leaders said while talking to Dawn on Tuesday.

Chairman All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association (Aptma) Salim Parekh said that almost all industrial areas in Karachi continue to suffer badly due to water shortage on account of power breakdowns at main KWSB installations.

“The ongoing water and power crisis has reduced industrial output, with the industries suffering huge financial losses,” he said.

Chairman SITE Association of Industry Irfan Moton said that the issue of water shortage has been lingering for around four months and units in SITE were unable to utilise full production capacity.

“Due to frequent power breakdown coupled with water shortage, foreign exports have been adversely affected,” he said.

“Around 40 per cent of textile processing industries of the country are located in SITE industrial. The officially allocated water supply for SITE industrial area is 25mgd against its actual demand of 32mgd. However, during the month of June, the supply on an average was no more than 3.1mgd and this month it has gone down to 2.7 mgd,” he said.

Responding to a question, he said that industry leaders have approached all the functionaries of the province. “Rather than seeing an improvement we are seeing a decline,” he said.

Chairman Korangi Association of Trade and Industry Eteshamuddin said that 4500 different size of industries and commercial set-ups in his areas also face power outages which hindered production activity.

“The provincial government has committed to set up an RO plant, which will also provide water to the industry,” he informed.