GUJRAT: The residents of many thickly populated areas of the city have been suffering due to suspension of water supply from the Gujrat Municipal Corporation since Saturday whereas the water supply lines in some areas have been contaminated with sewage.

The corporation officials say the crisis-like situation emerged due to the ill-planned digging and desilting of the drain which damaged the main water supply line. However, they claim the repair work is being done to restore the water supply to the affected localities.

The sanitation staff of the corporation had damaged the main supply line on Saturday during the cleaning of the Shah Hussain drain along the Alipura Road.

As the supply line was passing through the drain, sewage entered the remaining sub-supply lines of a vast area of the city.

Mayor Haji Nasir Mehmood was present at the site when the drain was being desilted with the use of heavy machinery but the machine damaged the supply line. The repair work could not start until Sunday afternoon.

However, the people of area made frantic phone calls to the mayor’s office and his nephew, MPA Imran Zafar, to lodge the protest against the situation and demanded its immediate resolution.

Aftab Sethi, a bank officer and resident of the Alipura Road, says the problem was caused due to negligence and ill-planning of the corporation’s management.

“The workers had first broken the concrete slabs over the drain on Saturday evening and then damaged the water supply line. The staff concerned for the repair work was not available on Sunday due to weekly holiday. It all shows the inefficiency of the civic agency.”

Mr Sethi adds that contamination of water should be treated as a criminal negligence and the officials in the municipal responsible for the damage should be dealt with under the relevant laws for their criminal negligence.

He deplores that the sanitation condition of the area has been very poor where the sanitary staff does not come for weeks but no action has been taken by the management despite several complaints to the mayor.

Shahid Basheer, a resident of Fawara Chowk, complains that the water supply to his area has consistently been having issues for the last two months since the digging along the Circular Road for laying new sewerage whereas the water pumping turbine of the area would often go out of order, leaving the people helpless for many days.

Kashif Hussain of Khalidabad locality along Sargodha Road seconds the opinion of the abovementioned people by saying that his area’s water supply lines too are contaminated by sewage.

The citizens have urged Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take notice of the situation and direct the authorities to resolve the issues.

Talking about the issue by phone, MPA Imran Zafar says the repair work to restore the water supply has been underway and hopefully it would be restored soon.

This correspondent made repeated calls to the mayor but the calls went unanswered.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2017