GILGIT, Feb 23: Water purification plants installed in the Gilgit city for provision of clean drinking water to the residents have stopped functioning for want of maintenance.

It is learnt that almost all plants are out of order and need repair but the water and sanitation agency has no expert to get the plants repaired.

The local residents who are facing great difficulty due to closure of these plants have been approaching the Wasa but so far there has been no response in this regard.

“Water purification plant installed at Kashrote is not working for nine months. We informed Wasa to repair the plant but officials said the department had no expert to repair it,” complained Mr Abidullah, a local resident. He said supply of piped water was also not regular due to faults in lines and the filtration plants had also stopped working.

Wasa officials on contact said some parts of these plants had gone out of order and needed to be replaced. They said the new parts were not available with the department.

It is to mention that these water filtration plants were installed during the Musharraf regime.

KKH TO BE CLOSED: The Karakuram Highway will remain closed from Sunday (today) to March 1 at Sholgran point of Kohistan district on account of repair of a bridge.

The FWO said the maintenance work on the bridge will begin on Feb 25 and shall continue till March 1, suspending all kinds of traffic during this period.