KARACHI, Sept 9: Various parts of the city remained in the grip of acute water shortage on Thursday, forcing the residents of the affected localities to either purchase water supplied by private tankers or consume sub-soil unhygienic water.

Though the complaints of acute water shortage continued to pour in newspaper offices from different parts of the city, the localities where the water shortage has become a chronic issue, include Clifton's Block 2, Lyari's D D Chaudhry Road, parts of Orangi Town's UC No 9, Ranchorre Lane, Pakistan Chowk, Haquani Chowk, Kharadar and 'E' Market of the PECHS.

However, the hard-hit locality, where residents have not received water since July, is the Lyari's D D Chaudhry Road, situated in Baghdadi's UC No 5. According to office-bearers of the D D Chaudhry's Mohalla Committee, despite lodging of several written complaints with the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board officials, no action has been taken so far to restore the water supply to the locality.

In yet another letter, addressed to the KWSB's Managing Director, Brig Iftekhar Haider, the Mohalla Committee stated: "Our area almost remained without water throughout the hot and sultry weather, and now the situation has become worst because even the 10-minute supply has been stopped since July 31, 2004."

An office-bearer of the committee deplored that although they had written more than 25 applications to the officials concerned, apprising them of their chronic water issue, and had also submitted a complete file of their complaints, earlier lodged with the KWSB's managing director on Aug 31, all their efforts in getting their supply restored have gone in vain.

He urged the KWSB managing director to direct the officials concerned to restore normal and uninterrupted supply to their locality without any delay, as the absence of water had made their lives miserable.

Residents of Clifton's Block 2 also complained that although water shortage in their locality had been persisting since long, the KWSB officials concerned had not taken any measures to restore the normal supply despite a number of complaints had been lodged with them.

Similar complaints have been received from the residents of Haquani Chowk, Pakistan Chowk and Kharadar. They said that since the acute water shortage in their localities had been persisting since the advent of summer season, they had no choice but to consume sub-soil brackish water at the cost of their health.