KARACHI, Aug 20: The incessant supply of muddy water to the city from the Indus source has become a major source of vomiting, nausea and severe abdominal pain among the Karachiites, besides badly affecting the working of the KWSB’s filter plants, situated at COD hills and North-East Karachi.
The KWSB officials confirmed that the Sindh irrigation department’s two-month-old decision of supplying unsettled water to the city from the Indus source via the Kalri Baghar (KB) canal’s upper feeder had not only overburdened the filter plants’ capacity, but was also resulting in deposition of huge quantity of silt in the reservoirs, pipelines and underground and overhead tanks of houses.
Prior to adoption of the new system of supplying Indus water to the city, which has been enforced for the first time in the last ten years or so, the KWSB officials said, the irrigation department was releasing 900 cusecs of settled water in the Kinjhar Lake through the KB canal’s upper feeder for meeting the Karachi’s drinking water requirement and unsettled water to the tune of 2000 cusecs through a bypass of the canal’s lower feeder for irrigation purpose of Thatta district.
However, it is since the introduction of the new system of supplying water to the city via KB canal’s lower feeder that the quality of water has deteriorated to such an extent that both the filter plants of the metropolis were not being able to cope with the huge quantity of mud-carrying water owing to their limited capacity of purifying water, sources said.
The officials claimed that the KWSB had repeatedly requested the irrigation department to revert to its old system of releasing water in the Kinjhar Lake after closing the KB canal’s lower feeder gates so that the Karachiites once again start getting settled water and unsettled water is channelized through the bypass of the canal’s lower feeder for meeting agricultural requirements of the Thatta district.
Deploring that all the requests have, so far, remain unheeded by the officials of the irrigation department, the KWSB officials hoped that Sindh governor and the city Nazim would intervene in the matter to bring an end to the citizens’ anxieties over drinking ‘impure’ water and also for removing the silting problem.
“The continuous supply of muddy water to the city is tarnishing the image of the KWSB although the Board officials themselves are highly perturbed over the irrigation department’s decision of supplying unsettled water to Karachi for such a long period,” remarked a senior officer of the KWSB.
About the reduced quantity of water currently being supplied to the city from the Hub source, the officials said it was beyond their comprehension that why Wapda officials were not being able to release the agreed upon quantity of 45 million gallons of water in the Hub canal for three consecutive days after every two days although they had supplied the same quantity of water to the city last year when water level in the Hub Dam reservoir was almost similar to the current level.
BALDIA: Getting perturbed over persisting water shortage, the Baldia Town Nazim, Aurangzeb, and other union representatives have threatened to lock the offices of the Town administration if water supply was not restored in the next 24 hours.
They regretted that all their complaints lodged with the city Nazim and the KWSB’s managing-director and chief engineer have, so far, gone in vain.
Complaints of acute water shortage have also been received from Lyari’s Eidu Lane, Shah Beg Lane, Ali Mohammad Mohalla, Bund Mohalla and Kalri.