KARACHI, July 7: Water supply to various parts of the city will be affected badly on Tuesday owing to power failures which occurred at major pumping stations of the water and sanitation department on Monday.
A spokesman for the department told Dawn that the power, which went off at Gharo pumping station at 4.20pm, was not restored till 8.30pm on Monday. Similarly, pumping of water to the city from Dhabeji and Pipri pumping stations remained suspended for half an hour and from Dumlottee pumping station for two-and-a-half hours.
“As the city had already suffered a shortfall of over 20 million gallons of water by 8.30pm on Monday in the wake of power failures at the above-mentioned pumping station, a number of localities will experience water shortage on Tuesday,” he added.
Several parts of the city on Monday either went without water or received scant supply.
The hard-hit areas included parts of Liaquatabad, Nazimabad, Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s Block 5, Bangalore Town, parts of Shah Faisal Colony, different localities of Site Town, Clifton’s blocks 4 and 5, Lyari’s Daryabad, Shershah and different sectors of North Karachi, Surjani, Orangi and Baldia.
Though the water shortage problem in Baldia, Shershah, Orangi, North Karachi and Surjani has been persisting for long, residents of Clifton’s blocks 4 and 5 are deprived of water for more than one-and-a-half months.
Similarly, residents of Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s Block 5 complained that they were without water for the last four days.
Meanwhile, residents of Bangalore Town have lamented that they had been experiencing acute water shortage problem for the last one month as the officials concerned in the water and sanitation department have not only curtailed the duration, but also changed the schedule of their supply.
The localities which went without water on Monday under the weekly water-holiday system included all blocks of North Nazimabad, Federal B Area, Nazimabad, Shadman Town and Buffer Zone.
Residents of the affected localities complained that in the absence of piped water, they had no choice but to either buy water tankers at exorbitant rates or consume the unhygienic sub-soil water at the cost of their health.
CONTAMINATION: Residents of Gulistan-i-Jauhar’s Block 13 complained on Monday that underground tanks of a number of households, in the row starting from House No A-61, had been filled with filthy water which made its way into the tanks, after overflowing from a nearby nullah, through the locality’s water lines.
“Isn’t it amazing that the pipelines, which often remain dry, have been supplying sewage water to the consumers for about a week?” remarked a resident of the affected locality. He complained: “Whenever we approach officials of the W&S department for help in resolving the lingering issue, they advise us to contact officials of Cantonment Board because the said block doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of the W&S department.”
Meanwhile, residents of Azizabad No 2 complained that despite the passage of more than a week since the problem of contaminated water in this locality surfaced, the officials concerned had not yet succeeded in rectifying the fault.
Residents of the affected localities demanded of the higher authorities to look into the matter as the contaminated water posed a serious threat to the health of all the consumers in this block.
CLOSURE: The localities where water supply would remain suspended on Tuesday are: Clifton, Gizri, Delhi Colony, Punjab Colony, Shirin Jinnah Colony, Jinnah Hospital, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Naval Officers Residents Estate-I, Bhutta Village and Naval Dockyard.