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KARACHI, April 21: Persisting water shortage in different parts of Lyari took a violent turn on Monday when enraged residents of certain affected areas attacked an official of the water and sanitation department.
The area people, who had gathered at the Behar Colony pumping station to stage a sit-in over the lingering water issue, damaged the official car of the city government’s water and sanitation department’s superintendent engineer (Lyari), Abdul Rahim Khatti, and smashed its glasses.
According to the SE, Lyari, he was called to the site of the demonstration by the nazims of some union councils of Lyari to pacify the protesters by explaining to them the water supply position. As soon as he reached the venue of the sit-in, the protesters who were raising slogans against water and sanitation department not only attacked his car, but a group of people also tried to manhandle him and his staff.
“However, I and my staff managed to escape from the scene, or else we could have been beaten by the attackers,” he added.
He said that the Lyari’s Town Nazim, Naib Nazim and other UCs nazims were already present at the venue of demonstration where the ugly incident took place.
When this reporter tried to contact Lyari Town’s Nazim, Abdul Khaliq Juma, to have his version of the incident, he was neither present at his office nor at home.
However, some residents of Lyari said although a number of localities, including Agra Taj Colony, Behar Colony, Hingoro Road, Ali Mohammad Maula Road, have been experiencing an acute water shortage for the last one week, the concerned officials of the water and sanitation department have not made arrangement to restore normal supply despite a number of complaints lodged with them.
SHORTAGE: Several other parts of the city also continue to be in the grip of water shortage in the current hot and sultry weather.
The hard-hit areas included Gulistan-i-Jauhar’s Block 7, PECHS Block 2, near Senior Model School, different sectors of North Karachi and Buffer Zone.
Residents of Gulistan-i-Jauhar’s Block 7 regretted that although their locality is deprived of water for the last 20 days, the concerned officials of the water and sanitation department seem least interested in restoring the supply, thereby forcing them to buy private tankers at exorbitant rates.
Meanwhile, the localities which went without water on Monday included all blocks of North Nazimabad, Federal ‘B’ Area, Shadman Town and parts of Nazimabad.
CLOSURE: The localities which would go dry on Tuesday included Clifton, Gizri, Delhi Colony, Punjab Colony, Shireen Jinnah Colony, Bhutta Village, Jinnah Post-graduate Medical Centre, National Institute of Child Health and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.
