KARACHI, Oct 31: The private tankers on Thursday had a field day in various water-starved parts of the city as the KWSB has so far failed to offset the shortage of water resulting from the suspension of the supply from the Hub Dam’s dried reservoir.
The tanker-owners have been doing a roaring business, due to the week-long scarcity, operating day and night in the seriously affected localities.
According to the residents of the hard-hit areas, a single tanker of water cost them no less than Rs400 to 500 and there was no government official available to check the unimaginably exorbitant rates.
“We have no option but to come to their terms as our area either goes dry most often or receives inadequate supply normally,” some of them moaned.
“For long, we are meeting our daily requirements by purchasing private tankers’ water but the KWSB will continue to make us pay the water charges despite the fact that a utility organization is supposed to charge for the service it provides to its consumers,” another perturbed resident of an affected locality remarked in a sarcastic manner.
The localities which received no water or a scant supply on Thursday included Bath Island, Clifton’s blocks 2, 5 and 7, almost entire North Karachi, Baldia Town, parts of Lyari, different cooperative housing societies, Qasba Colony, Mianwali Colony, Rasheedabad, Old City Area, Soldier Bazaar, Jehangir Quarters, Mehmoodabad and Azam Basti.
The areas where water supply was suspended as part of the KWSB’s plan of diverting Indus water to the Hub source-hooked localities included Landhi, Korangi, Defence Housing Authority, National Refinery, Karachi Port Trust, Pakistan Railways, PAF (Korangi) Base and its adjoining areas.
Water supply to Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s blocks 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 10- A, 13-A, 13-B, 16, 17 and 18 will remain suspended on Friday.
Some insiders attributed the persistent water shortage in certain localities to the abrupt changes, currently being made by the KWSB in the schedule of supply, and the curtailment of supply duration in various localities without making any announcement about such changes. They told Dawn that the other cause of resentment among the affected people was their helplessness in getting their lingering water issue resolved because the KWSB’s complaint centres were not functioning properly due to the inadequate facilities available to their staff.
They further said: “though the KWSB with a view to diverting the Indus water to the sprawling townships hooked to the Hub source has introduced weekly water-holiday system for different localities of the city since Monday last, it has not yet succeeded in ensuring equitable distribution of water to all the parts of the city.”
The KWSB sources admitted: “with the introduction of the water-holiday system, not only the water supplying schedule for almost half of the city has been disrupted badly but there are certain localities which usually go dry thrice a week owing to mismanagement in the city’s water distribution system,” They said that the KWSB would have to review its present plan of water distribution system, main thrust of which should be a strict compliance of the water supply schedule of every locality in the city.
The affected people lamented that the KWSB’s officials had failed to take any measures for the restoration of water supply.