KARACHI, June 2: Many parts of the city on Thursday remained in the grip of an acute water shortage amid the persisting hot and humid weather. The worst-affected localities included Clifton’s blocks 2 and 4, Bath Island, Mehmoodabad, Manzoor Colony, Kharadar, Mithadar, Ramswami, Bhimpura and different sectors of North Karachi.
Residents of the affected localities said they had been experiencing shortage of water ever since the advent of summer and were meeting their water requirement through the expensive supply by private tankers.
A resident of Clifton’s Block 2 argued that since most of the residents of his locality often depended on private tanker service in the absence of piped water, it was obligatory upon the KWSB reduce water charges pertaining to piped water.
Meanhile, residents of Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Gulistan-i-Jauhar complained that that since power failures and low voltage problems in their localities had become a matter of routine, the electrical motors were rendered inoperative. Therefore, they added, they could not pump water to fill overhead tanks.
They called on the KESC to ensure an uninterrupted power supply with full voltage. Besides causing water-related problems, the breakdowns also affected their children who were preparing for intermediate examinations these days, they pointed out.
CONTAMINATED WATER: A number of households in North Nazimabad’s block D have been getting contaminated water for a fortnight forcing the occupants to purchase private tankers at exorbitant rates.
Residents of the affected locality complained that the households, from House No A-519 to C-168, were receiving stinking water for a couple of weeks due to seepage in sewerage lines running parallel to drinking water conduits.
They said that a number of complaints had been lodged with the KWSB in this regard. However, they added, the Board’s staff had not yet succeeded in locating the fault.
They urged the managing director and chief engineer of the Board to issue directives to the officials concerned to immediately rectify the fault to ensure supply of clean water and avoid spread of water-borne diseases in the locality.
They also requested the KWSB officials to make arrangements for the supply of clean water to the affected locality through tankers till the problem was resolved as they could not afford buying private tankers any more.