KARACHI, May 2: Many parts of the city remained in the grip of an acute water shortage a day ahead of the Eid Milad-un-Nabi eve, forcing the residents to either purchase private tankers at exorbitant rates or consume sub-soil unhygienic water.
Persisting water shortage also gave a boost to the sale of private tankers, which charged between Rs500 and Rs600 per tanker in the water-starved localities, according to the residents of these areas.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the performance of the water utility organization's complaint centres, KWSB Managing Director Shahid Salim has asked the officials concerned to improve the working of the complaint centres, or else strict disciplinary action will be taken against them.
He issued show-cause notices to a number of executive engineers and KWSB officials belonging to Jamshed Town, Water Trunk Main and Lyari sewerage pumping station's Injector No 12.
Taking a notice of the fact that the officials concerned have failed to call the staff concerned on holidays, especially on Eid Milad-un-Nabi, for attending to public complaints, he instructed Chief Engineer Fareed Soomro to take appropriate measures to ensure that all complaints were redressed promptly.
Attributing the shortage to curtailment and change in schedule of water supply to various parts of the city by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Boards' water trunk main (WTM) wing, sources in the KWSB claimed that such unannounced measures taken by the WTM wing were creating difficulties for the officials responsible for ensuring equal distribution of water among different parts of the city.
Terming it a conspiracy against the senior officials of the KWSB's water distribution division, the source said that it was mandatory upon the WMT officials to intimate about the changes they made to the supply plan to the officials of water distribution division, so that the distribution system could be adjusted accordingly.
"But we have not been informed about the changes made by the WTM in water supply schedule and as such officials of water distribution system don't know how to manage the supply to the affected localities," they added.
The worst-affected localities included Gulshan-i-Iqbal's blocks 2 and 13-D/1, a portion of PECHS Block 2, Azizabad Nos 2 and 8, parts of Mehmoodabad, Federal B' Area's blocks, 6, 10 and 14; Grex Village, SITE residential as well as industrial areas, Mauripur, Shershah, Korangi Nos 1-1/2 and 2-1/2, Burnes Road, Bhimpura, Ranhorre Lane, Kharadar.
According to the residents of Federal B Area's Block 14, around 300 houses were deprived of water for the last one week. Similarly, the people residing in a huge housing complex 'Civic View Apartments,' situated in Gulshan-i-Iqbal's Block 13-D/1, complained that they had been facing acute water shortage for the last five days owing to short supply of water.
"The KWSB officials concerned have not only changed the schedule of our supply, but also curtailed the duration of supply," they regretted.